Tally Up Your Sins
by BlueWolfTwilight
Summary: Years after playing Undertale, you've all but forgotten about the game. It was fun while it lasted, but once you'd exhausted all possible endings and dialog options, you became bored with it and moved on to new hobbies. Until one day, while camping with some friends, you find a hole in the ground. (Part 1 of the "Still Counting" series) (Rated T for: graphic violence)
1. Have You Any Soul?

_There is a child standing in front of you._

 _At least, you think it's a child; they look small and still have a little bit of baby fat, making their face appear rounder than an adult's, but something about the way they hold themself makes them look very un-childlike. They have this strange, scrunched-up expression on their face, like they can't decide whether to laugh or cry. They're holding a knife, but it's hanging slack at their side._

 _Everything feels… hazy. Uncomfortable. You feel something crawling up your back. You can't bring yourself to turn around and look._

 _After an indescribable amount of time, the child speaks._

" _I found you."_

 _Their face twists in a way that should have been impossible. They smile big, like a cheshire cat._

" _You shouldn't have forgotten about us. Now we can get rid of you for good."_

 _The thing on your back scuttles up to your shoulders, settling down on your neck. It's heavy._

" _It's a shame, really. You could've been a great partner."_

 _The child's face shifts again, like play-dough. They look morose, and almost… pained?_

" _You have to fix it."_

 _Something wraps around your neck, choking you. You want to pry it away, but you can't bring yourself to touch it with your hands. If you touch it, that would make it real. Maybe if you keep ignoring it, it'll just go away…_

You wake up.


	2. He Who Fights Monsters

"WAKE UP!" You yelped, lurching into a sitting position and flinging blankets off of your body. In your haste, you knocked something over with your hand, and it fell down with a loud _thump_. Someone laughed and, as you recovered from your near heart attack, you realized it was your friend.

"You should've seen your face!" They giggled, clutching their chest with mirth. You groaned and flopped back down onto your sleeping bag. The morning light filtered through the material of the tent, casting a blue glow on everything inside. You squinted and shielded your eyes, grumbling something unintelligible about rude awakenings.

"Dude, it's not my fault you sleep like the dead! I've been poking you for the last five minutes but you wouldn't wake up. I had no choice." Peering through your fingers at your friend, you saw that their arms were folded as they sat at the foot of your sleeping bag, wearing a smug expression. Somehow, you doubted that they'd tried very hard to wake you up before shouting in your face, but you couldn't bring yourself to be terribly mad at them. You were just glad they hadn't left you behind to sleep in the tent while they went on your friend group's scheduled hike through the mountains.

"Time s'it?" You grumbled, patting the ground around you in search of your phone.

"Nine. Breakfast's almost ready, so you better hurry if you want to grab some before we leave!" With that, they bounded out of the tent, zipping it shut behind them. You envied your friend's early morning energy as you slowly extracted yourself from your bag, joints popping as you stretched them. You took in the sight of the tent, now in a state of disarray after your violent awakening. Blankets were scattered everywhere, and the electric lantern had somehow been thrown across the room (Was that what had hit your hand? The world may never know). Clearly, you were the last one up, so you reluctantly hurried to get dressed before everyone else drank all the coffee.

As you got ready for the day, you tried to remember what you had dreamed about last night. It felt important, somehow, but no matter how hard you tried, you couldn't recall a thing about it. You thought it might have been a nightmare, but you weren't sure. As you finished up your morning routine, you rationalized that it must have been a bad dream about bugs because, not only were you sleeping outside with all sorts of crawly critters, but every time you thought about the dream too hard, you got an itchy feeling all over your back.

After chatting with your friends over breakfast, the lot of you packed up some snacks and water bottles and headed off on your hike. You made sure to grab your cane before you left; you knew you wouldn't make it very far even with it, but you hoped to at least keep up with your friends for a mile before turning back. Camping wasn't exactly the ideal vacation for you, as all of the fun things to do outdoors were pretty labor-intensive. But your friends had invited you along and you hadn't wanted to be left out. Besides, they seemed to be trying to include you as much as possible, which you appreciated.

Even if you weren't much of a camper, you had to admit that the campsite really was beautiful. Your tents were parked in a forest about halfway up a gently-sloping mountain, far enough away from the small town below that you were guaranteed to never be disturbed. Adding to the remoteness of it all, there was some legend among the locals saying that people who climbed the mountain tended to disappear, so residents from the town prefered to stay away. You'd been a bit apprehensive about the whole camping trip when you first heard that rumor, but your friend, whose parents owned the campsite, assured you that they'd camped there every year for their entire childhood and nothing bad had ever happened. Regardless of whatever stories people conjured up, the place was very scenic. In your opinion, it was worth whatever minuscule risk there might have been.

Your hike up the mountain was filled with the pleasant sounds of birds chirping and the idle, but boisterous, chatter of your friends. Along the way, your group passed by an abandoned barn. While they explored it, you rested for a few minutes, glad to have the chance to conserve your energy. After that, you mostly just listened and enjoyed the view, interjecting every now and again when prompted. As you had predicted, you didn't make it very far before one of your legs started aching. Knowing from experience that pushing your physical limits would only lead to disaster, you told your group that you were going to head back to the tents. One of your friends offered to walk back with you, but you waved them off. You didn't want to cut anyone else's hike short, and besides, you were sure you could find your own way back. You'd all been following a well-worn, fairly straight path, so it wasn't like you needed a chaperone.

On your way back down, you walked at a more leisurely pace, content to take your time now that you weren't trying to keep up with anyone. You limped along slowly, thinking it would be pretty funny if your friends caught up to you before you got back to the campsite. You didn't think that would happen, though, and anticipated having a lot of alone time back at the tents. Just as you were contemplating the different chores you could get done while you waited for your friends to return, you heard something rustling in the trees.

You froze, your eyes scanning the area warily. Sure, there were a lot of little chipmunks and squirrels roaming about in the forest, but this had sounded much larger than that. As you stared into the trees, you heard the rustling again, and thought you saw the sun reflect off of something shiney.

Biting your lip, you began to inch toward the movement cautiously. You knew this was a bad idea, but you just had to know what it was before moving on. If you didn't look, then you'd just be worried about it for the rest of your vacation, and you didn't want something stupid like this to ruin your experience. The underbrush was quite thick once you strayed off of the path, and you struggled to move through it. Your legs and cane kept getting caught up in stray roots and vines, and all of the noise you were making was drowning out the rustling sound. You stopped to get your bearings, but found that you couldn't hear anything anymore.

You let out a frustrated huff before forging ahead, determined to find whatever this thing was, or at least put some effort into it before giving up. You trudged on for a minute more before finding something entirely unexpected; a huge, gaping hole in the ground.

The hole was almost perfectly circular, its diameter spanning the length of two cars put together. The forest seemed to have grown around it, with vines spilling over the edge and into the emptiness below. The cavern itself seemed even wider than the hole. You gaped openly at the strange sight, inching a little bit closer to the edge. Even only a few feet from the lip of the hole, you still couldn't see the bottom of it. You hesitated to get closer; you weren't particularly afraid of heights, but such a long drop without any railings to offer protection would give anyone pause. The hole made you uneasy, and you decided not to explore any further, at least not without your friends there to back you up.

But, just as you were about to turn around and head back, something rammed into you from behind. You gasped and lurched forward, your stomach dropping as you fell head-first toward the hole. Your arms pinwheeled in a desperate effort to keep you upright, but it was useless. You fell.

What was going on?! What the fuck had pushed you?! You tried to scream, but there was no air in your lungs. You were dead, you were so fucking dead-!

…

…

…?

You weren't dead.

In fact, you hadn't even felt yourself land. One moment, you were falling, the wind whipping past your face, and the next, you just… weren't.

Immediately, you scrambled to your feet, your heart pounding a mile a minute. Your head spun and your hands shook, high on adrenaline as you patted yourself down. Distantly, you figured you probably shouldn't have stood up right away… what if you were injured? But your quick pat-down didn't reveal any obvious wounds, and nothing seemed to hurt any more than usual. You must've dropped your cane sometime during the fall, because it had landed a few meters away. You hobbled over to it, comforted by the familiar feel of it in your hand. Finally, you took a look at your surroundings.

The cavern you were in was even bigger than you'd imagined. You could hardly even see the edges; in fact, you could hardly see anything, as it was quite dark. The only source of light came from directly above. The distant sunlight illuminated a clump of golden flowers, which you must've landed on. The poor flowers had been crushed under your weight, many of their stems broken or bent beyond repair. However, you couldn't have cared less about the flowers at the moment. You were more worried about yourself.

"Help!" You cupped your hands around your mouth and shouted as loud as you could, which wasn't terribly loud. Even though you were miraculously unharmed, you were still winded from the fall. You cleared your throat and tried again.

"HELP!" What with the shape of the cavern, you would've thought that it would amplify the sounds of your screams. But, to your dismay, your voice didn't echo as much as you'd thought it would. The dark, dustiness of the cave seemed to suffocate your cries somehow. You squinted up at the hole above you, hoping to see someone sticking their head over the edge.

…

But nobody came.

…

As you waited, you grew more and more uneasy with the situation. Your eyes darted around, trying to look everywhere all at once. You yelled for help as often as you could, but your voice soon grew hoarse with overuse. Your fingers twitched, you felt some invisible force pressing down on your chest. You had to move.

There was a hole in the wall of the cavern to your right that you had been stealing glances at with increasing apprehension. "I'll be right back." You said out loud to no one in particular, then immediately regretted it. The situation wasn't so dire that you had to speak aloud to yourself; you couldn't possibly have gone insane yet, right? You shook your head and forced a smile before limping over to the hole, peering into it with trepidation.

Inside was a fairly spacious hallway, which lead to an… archway? Were there manmade structures down here? Hopeful, you pressed on, finding yourself in a strangely well-lit cavern. You couldn't figure out where the light was coming from, but you stood under it, wondering just what the hell was going on.

Suddenly, something long and skinny shot out from the darkness, wrapping around your ankle like a whip. It pulled you off balance, and you gasped in surprise as you fell on your ass. Your cane clattered to the ground, knocked out of your hand by a second whip-like projection, which you recognized now as some sort of vine. You tried to crab-crawl away, but you were held tight by the vine around your ankle, its thorns digging sharply into your skin. The more you pulled, the tighter its hold on you became, until finally you heard something _snap_ underneath the pressure. Your head swam with pain and blood pounded in your ears, but the shock kept your lips sealed.

"Howdy!" Something crept forward out of the darkness. A… flower? You gaped openly at it, hardly believing your eyes. You were insane alright, there was no denying it now. The vine that had knocked your cane away came back to wrap around your other leg, dragging you closer to the grinning golden flower.

"Are you lost?" This was not happening, this was not happening, this was not- "I'm Flowey, Flowey the flower! Don't worry, I'll take you home… NOT!" It giggled, and you whimpered as the thorns dug deeper, drawing blood that dribbled onto the ground. You were too stunned to do anything about it. "Sorry, I'm not normally such a party-pooper, but I'm not really in the mood to play games anymore." It shrugged its leaves as a root shot up from the ground to wrap around your neck. It pulled you to the ground, your head cracking on the bare stone sharply. Too late, you began to struggle, tugging at the dirty root in vain. The flower appeared beside you, somehow, looming down on you as you thrashed. With your last breath, you opened your mouth…

"As… ri… el…" The flower's grin fell, and it loosened its hold on you.

"What… what did you just call me?" No way. That had been a last-ditch effort. There was no way this was actually-

"Asriel." The flower looked almost frightened for a moment before it released you, all of its roots and vines sinking back into the ground.

"C-Chara? Is that you?" His voice was suddenly small, his grin forced. Your head spun. You'd almost forgotten that's what you'd named… _Don't think about it, just go with it…_

"Yes." You sat up, squared your shoulders, and tried to look as threatening as possible. A tall order, when you were shaking with fear.

"O-Oh! I didn't re-recognize you!" The flower… goddamn _Flowey_ , disappeared and reappeared a few meters away. He cowered meekly, sweat dripping from his petals. "You, uh, you stopped restarting! And after such a lackluster ending! I thought you were gone!" Thinking fast, you replied,

"I had to find a new body. The other one was… putting up too much of a resistance." Flowey had an odd look on his face, but he seemed to accept this. "Listen, I have a plan. Just don't get in my way." Flowey nodded vigorously.

"Don't worry, pal! I'll help! After all, I'm your best friend, right?!" Distantly, you felt yourself smiling at him, reassuringly.

"Right." The flower let out a tense giggle and gave you a strange salute with one of his leaves before disappearing into the ground, leaving you alone to sit numbly in the spotlight.


	3. One Step Forward

So. Video games were real.

Well, _this_ video game was real, at least. Undertale. A whole, secret society of monsters trapped underground. You tried to wrap your head around it, but...

A single, dry sob escaped your mouth before you quickly clamped your hand over it. As absurd as the situation was, you had to treat this seriously. In all likelihood, this was all some kind of trippy hallucination, but you had to act as if it wasn't, just in case... well, it wasn't. You felt dizzy.

Gingerly, you brought your other hand to the back of your head. Your hair felt matted and your scalp was tender to the touch. Your fingers came away bloody. Not a good sign. The hand covering your mouth moved slowly down to your neck, as if you were afraid of startling yourself (a legitimate concern, given the way things were going). Your neck was almost certainly bruised, and between the strangulation and all of the yelling you'd done earlier, your throat was so sore that it hurt just to breathe. Lastly, you inspected your left ankle. You thought you'd heard it breaking earlier, but it didn't actually look much different from the right. A bit torn up from all of the thorns, sure, but otherwise normal. Maybe it was fine?

After crawling over to your cane and retrieving it yet again, you tried to stand up. Using the wall of the cavern and your cane for support, you carefully levered yourself upright. Okay, so it stung a little, but hey, maybe it was just sprained? You could probably walk on it until…

Now that you'd taken stock of your physical condition, the reality of the situation was beginning to weigh on you. Assuming you actually _were_ in the Underground, you wouldn't be able to get back out the way you came. You wracked your brain, dredging up half-remembered facts about a game you hadn't played for years. You'd have to cross the barrier, and to get to that you'd have to go through the Ruins and Snowdin and Waterfall and Hotland and…

You felt dizzy again and pressed your forehead against the cool, damp wall of the cave. What condition would the Underground even be in? That conversation with Flowey had gone by so fast, you couldn't even think of anything he might have said that could've given you a hint. And Flowey thought you were his long-lost sibling, Chara… you fought down nausea. Just the thought of that creepy, fictional psychopath made you ill (or was that just your probably-concussion?) You'd played the No Mercy run several times; you couldn't help yourself, you'd wanted to see what would happen. But now, thinking about that made you feel dirty. Did all of that… really happen?

 _No, it can't have! Flowey would be dead if that were the case. But Flowey mentioned resetting… are there really alternate timelines, too?_ Thinking about all of this made your headache even worse, so you decided to stop. For now, you just had to get moving.

Toriel! Obviously, why hadn't you thought of her before? Toriel's house was in the Ruins, you just had to get there and she'd patch you up, no problem. As you limped into the next room, you recalled how you used to hate this part of the game when you'd played it. The area was too linear, the puzzles too easy, and the choices too few. By the second playthrough, you'd seen everything there was to see in this place. Now, though, as the shadow of the ruins loomed above you, darker than you remembered it being, you were glad that at least you wouldn't get lost. If only there were fewer stairs.

Thankfully, no one was around to see you scoot backwards up the stairs but, as you progressed with little effort through some of the initial puzzles, the lack of any sign of life became disturbing. Even the dummy, which you could've sworn you should have passed by now, was nowhere to be found. The fact that the only monster you'd seen so far was Flowey felt off, somehow. But you pressed on, convinced that Toriel would be just around the next corner.

By the time you reached the end of the long hallway, you were in bad shape. Your ankle, which hadn't looked too bad initially, was swollen to twice its normal size now. Dark, splotchy bruises covered the area, and walking on it was a nightmare. You slid down to sit with your back against a brick wall, tugging your shoe off of your foot hastily. You hissed as you finally managed to pry it off. The blood flowing to your swollen ankle was both a relief and a curse. The pain was intense for a few minutes as it pounded in time with your heartbeat, but after a while, it started to improve. Reluctantly, you stood up again, and kept moving.

From there, things only got worse. The puzzles got progressively harder; though you remembered the solutions to the first few, the more complicated ones gave you pause. At least falling through the floor wasn't as violent as you had feared. In fact, floating gently down onto a pile of leaves was the only fun part of the whole experience. Pushing the boulder onto the pressure plate was a lot harder than you'd anticipated, and trying to remember the right path to take that wouldn't lead to you falling through the floor was especially difficult when it felt like someone was taking a hammer to your head. By the time you reached the room with the three rocks, you were just about at your wit's end.

Exhausted, you limped up to the first rock. You leaned all of your weight on it, but to no avail.

"C'mon…" You mumbled under your breath, your sweaty hands slipping a little on the surface of the stone. You tried to use your cane for leverage, but abandoned the idea for fear of breaking your most precious possession. A frustrated groan echoed in the spacious room, followed by coughing. Your throat still hurt too much to handle that kind of strain.

"Hey there, pardner, you look like you're havin' a bit of trouble!" Much to your embarrassment, you squeaked in surprise, almost falling over as you whirled to face whoever had spoken. Oh, right. You'd forgotten about that rock. "Haven't seen anyone 'round these parts for quite some time… what brings ya?" You limped slowly toward the far rock, your expression strained with pain.

"Nothing, really, I just… fell." The rock clicked its tongue (or at least, that was what it sounded like. The logic behind a talking rock would have interested you in any other situation, but now you were just too tired) and replied,

"Oh-ho! So you'll be wantin' me to move then. I see how it is. Well, don't let me stop ya!" With that, the boulder scraped along the ground slowly, coming to rest on its pressure plate. You looked from the talking rock to the other rocks, an idea forming in your head.

"Could you, maybe, get your friends to move for me, too?" The rock burst into laughter… the kind that was loud and obnoxious. 

"Y'see, pumpkin, my friends ain't much for movin'. They'll put ya through th' ropes, but me, I've always been a sucker for a pretty face!" Was the rock… trying to flirt with you? You weren't sure how you felt about that, but regardless, it didn't help you much in your current situation.

You sighed, lowering yourself down to the ground as gently as you could. _I'll just take a quick break, then try to move the rocks again._ You thought as you leaned against the middle boulder, rubbing your face with your hands. You must've looked pretty desperate, because the talkative rock hummed deliberately. If it had hands, you imagined it might've scratched its chin, deep in thought.

"Now, I don't normally do this, but you look down on your luck so… howsabout I carry you up on out of this joint?" You perked up at that, your head rising out of your hands hopefully.

"You'd do that?" The rock vibrated… happily?

"Sure! Just for you, sugar," It slid closer to you, rotating to expose a flatter, more chair-like slab of stone, "Hop on up, don't be shy." You obliged gratefully, giving it a little pat once you were settled. "Better hold on tight! This ride only goes one speed." Looking around, you saw absolutely nothing you could hold onto, so instead you just clutched your cane with both hands.

"I'm ready!"

"Okay! Here we go!" Slowly, the rock began to slide along the ground. You thought perhaps it was just warming up, but no. The rock really did only go one speed.

Despite being completely exhausted, you almost laughed at the absurdity of the situation. Things had seemed pretty dire for a while there, but now you were again almost certain that this was either a dream or a hallucination. Your rock friend seemed to defy gravity as it floated over the moat that had been blocking your path.

"How're you doin' up there, pardner?" It yelled up to you, unnecessarily loud given your proximity. You wondered if it could feel you sitting on it, or if it could see where it was going, but you thought it might be rude to ask.

"Just peachy!" You gave it another little pat for good measure, and it vibrated again under your touch. How… strange.

The journey through the latter half of the Ruins was much more pleasant when you were given a ride. Now that you weren't putting pressure on it, your foot only ached dully. The friendly rock chatted to you as it scraped slowly through the Ruins, completely bypassing all of the puzzles in its way. You found it difficult to focus on what it was saying, but if the rock noticed you weren't paying attention, it didn't seem to mind. After a while, though, his babbling started to make your ears ring, and you kind of wished he'd stop.

Mercifully, nothing disastrous happened before the two of you reached Toriel's front door. The quaint little house's door was open, which was unsettling, but you couldn't think on it much before your ride shuddered to a stop.

"Well, this is where I'll leave ya! I'm not much for the indoors m'self, so you'll have to go on without me." You found this ironic, since the rock lived in a cave and was technically always indoors, but you didn't mention it. You got off of the boulder carefully, wincing when you were forced to put weight on your ankle again.

"The lift was nice while it lasted, thank you so much!" You gave the rock one last, hearty pat.

"Aw, shucks… good luck out there, pumpkin!" With that, your new friend shuffled away. Very slowly. You decided not to wait for it to disappear from view before continuing on.

Hesitantly, you hobbled into the house. "Hello? Is anyone home?" You called, but there was only eery silence. The entryway felt cold and empty. It gave you shivers.

You had been avoiding thinking about it, but there was a real possibility that Toriel no longer lived here. Assuming all of the events of the game had actually happened (and that was a big assumption to make, considering you still weren't sure that any of this was real), there were plenty of scenarios that could've lead to Toriel leaving the Ruins. Maybe she had taken up her position as Queen again, or… well, there was really only one other option that you could recall.

You had to make sure, though. Because you had kind of been counting on her taking care of you and fixing everything, and if that wasn't going to happen then you didn't know what to do. Tears pricked on the edge of your vision as you limped from room to room. Everything looked exactly the same as you remembered it in the game. You finally let the tears fall when you saw Toriel's bedroom, which was just as empty as the rest of the house.

 _Okay, okay… what now? I have to think._ You hardly could, though. You were heaving in deep sobs, which irritated your already damaged throat. You felt dizzy again, you were nauseous, your ears were still ringing (even though the rock wasn't around to talk loudly to you anymore), and your goddamn foot _hurt_! This was a mess, what were you even doing? You should've just waited by the hole for someone to come by and rescue you. None of this would've happened if you weren't so damn curious!

You palmed at your teary eyes vigorously, sniffling wetly as you tried to calm your sobs. Now was really not the time for a breakdown. Snowdin, that was the next stop. If you could just get to Snowdin, surely there'd be someone there who would help you. You stumbled toward the stairs, scooting down them on your butt again since descending like a normal person seemed like an impossible task at the moment.

After traversing two more unnecessarily long hallways, you found yourself in another dark room with a spotlight. The long walk had given you some time to collect yourself, because you remembered from the game that this was where Flowey always appeared. Sure enough, the little golden flower popped up from the ground underneath the light. You felt a bit smug from being able to predict his movements so easily, but that pride was almost immediately overshadowed by uneasiness. In your mind, you feverishly rehearsed the lie you had told at the beginning of the Ruins before stepping towards him, standing as straight as you could.

"H-hey, buddy!" Flowey still looked cowed by your presence, which was a benefit to you. You were sure that, if he wasn't so out of his mind with fear of Chara, he'd see through your act easily. "So, uh, what's the plan? If… if you don't mind me asking." You put on your best scowl, which wasn't very difficult since a scowl wasn't too far from the pained grimace you felt like making.

"It doesn't matter now. You screwed up my leg, so now I have to wait for that to heal before I can set the plan in motion." Flowey lurched toward you, and it took everything in your power not to flinch.

"I'm so sorry! I can help! Just let me-"

"No!" You yelled, a little too quickly, "No, I don't want you messing things up again. Just leave me be, I'll tell you when I'm ready." The flower paused, and you hoped that, against all odds, he'd accept this unquestioningly.

"Alright, friend. I'm sorry." And, weirdly, he really _did_ look sorry. His face was scrunched up in remorse, but distorted a little, as if he could barely remember how to form the expression.

"Just… go away." So he did. As quickly as he'd appeared, Flowey left. And you were left alone, a little disturbed that you had managed to imitate Chara so well.

It gave you an odd, itchy feeling on your back.


	4. Babe in the Woods

Upon exiting the Ruins, you immediately limped over to the bush on the other side of the door. You made sure to stay behind it as you dug around, looking for the camera that you knew was hidden there. Once you found it, you smashed it with the tip of your cane, shattering the lens. You didn't know how you felt yet about Alphys knowing of your presence. Even if the monsters here were all perfectly friendly to humans, the cameras made you uneasy. Better to be safe than sorry.

As you walked the barely-trodden, wooded path, you quickly realized that Snowdin was, in fact, very cold. There was no wind, but snow was coming down in big, fat snowflakes. In your long sleeved t-shirt and jeans, you were definitely not dressed for the weather. The only relief was that your hiking shoes weren't half bad in the snow. However, since you'd taken your left shoe off a while ago, only one foot was protected. You considered putting it back on, but just the thought of even touching your ankle made you shudder. On the bright side, at least you could hardly feel the pain anymore, what with how cold and numb your foot was.

By the time you passed the (already broken) stick, your mind was beginning to get foggy again. You'd had a brief moment of mental clarity when talking to Flowey, but now your head was feeling worse again. In a haze, you managed to stumble over the bridge with the too-wide bars. You barely registered the disconcerting fact that Sans was not here to greet you before you spotted the sentry station up ahead. Hopeful, you stumbled up to it, rummaging through its contents. All of your rations for the hike had been in one of your friend's backpacks, since they'd insisted on you not carrying anything. But now you were hungry, and wished you'd held on to your power bars. Unfortunately, there was nothing to eat behind Sans' station either (aside from bottles of condiments, but you weren't that desperate yet).

Tired, hungry, and in pain, you sank to your knees. The little roof over the structure was enough to block the falling snow, and to you, this seemed like a luxury. You curled up underneath it, teeth chattering as you hugged yourself. Distantly, you knew this was a bad idea, but you couldn't bring yourself to care anymore. Within minutes, you were fast asleep.

It was snowing today. It was little differences like this that grounded him, let him know that time was still marching forward. This morning, Papyrus had woken him up in the same way he had on _that_ day ("Sans! You're going to be late for work! We need to be ready in case a human arrives today!"). Every time something like that happened, he'd think, for a moment, that there'd been another reset. That he'd have to go through the motions all over again; put his fate in a child's hands because there wasn't a goddamn thing he could do to change it (not for lack of trying).

He tried to make an effort, now, to wake up early. Before Papyrus, even. Because then, he'd never have to hear those words again. But sometimes, like today, he'd accidentally sleep in and wake up to have a mini heart attack.

The sickening part of it was that he wasn't even sure which would be worse; the resets starting up again, or living in this day-to-day monotony for the rest of his life. It was stupid, but, as much as he'd loathed the resets, he kind of hoped it would start all over again. Not that his life was horrible here… to be honest, it wasn't much different from before the kid had showed up. But, after seeing how good things could've been on the surface, a greedy little part of him couldn't help but to wish he had one more chance to make that reality happen.

But, hey. It was snowing. And it wasn't like he could control the weather.

His slippered feet crunched on the fresh snow as he strolled leisurely up to his post. His eyes wandered instinctively to the spot where the conveniently-shaped lamp had once stood. He'd gotten rid of it after a week of no resets; it was another way to remind himself that things were different, even on days when it wasn't snowing. So he guessed, in a way, it was still being convenient, even while it was locked away in their shed. He snorted a little at his own private joke as he walked behind his post, ready for another exciting day of sleeping on the job.

Caught up in his routine as he was, he didn't notice that there was something living curled up in the shadow of his sentry station. He nearly stepped on the thing before he saw it, its gray shirt blending in surprisingly well with the surroundings. Surprised and a little wary, he crouched down to get a better look at it.

He drew in a sharp breath.

"Oh _boy_ "

It was a human. Not _the_ human, of course; this one was significantly bigger, even all curled up like it was. It wasn't moving, and he would've thought it dead if not for the occasional rise and fall of its chest. Cautiously, he touched its shoulder, then gripped it when it didn't respond, and shook it gently. Still nothing. He wasn't sure what the normal body temperature was for a human, but he did know that human skin wasn't supposed to look that blue. Poor thing was in rough shape.

Without a second thought, he brought his arms under the human and swept them up, bridal-style. He grunted and staggered a little,

"Man, you're heavy." He looked down at the human in his arms, but none of this jostling elicited a response. The were a dead-weight.

It was only then that he noticed the human was clutching something. Two somethings, actually; one was a long, metal stick, and the other looked like a shoe. He peered over at the human's feet and saw that, indeed, they had taken off one of their shoes. How strange.

"Alright, buddy, let's get you someplace warm." Thankfully, there was a shortcut right by where the conveniently-shaped lamp had once stood, so Sans only had to take a few steps before his post was left empty once more.


	5. Wakey Wakey, Eggs and Spaghetti?

You woke up slowly this time, the hushed words of a conversation flooding your consciousness before you were even aware you were awake. By the time you were alert enough to comprehend what was being said, the discussion was already well underway.

"... have to keep them here, until we figure something else out."

"But… but I don't want to lie to her… I don't like lying to people!"

"I know bro, but c'mon. I know you know what's gonna happen to that human if Undyne finds out. Do you want that?" There was a long pause.

"No. You're right. The human must stay with us, it's not safe for them anywhere else! Oh! I'll have to cook for them! Do you think they like spaghetti?" The tone of the conversation seemed much lighter now. One of the voices let out a low chuckle.

"Dunno, bro. You'll have to find out."

"Even if they don't, no one can resist the flavor of _my_ home cooked pasta! Nyeh!" You heard the thumping of what sounded like someone descending a flight of stairs very rapidly, and then… nothing.

Slowly, you opened your eyes, squinting at first to look around for the second person who you didn't hear leave. It was quite dark, so it took a moment for your eyes to adjust. Fortunately, it seemed like the reason the voices were hushed was not because they were whispering, but because they were not in the room with you and were being muffled by the closed door. You were alone.

With that realization, you shot up into a sitting position. The last thing you remembered was falling asleep in the snow, and this was definitely _not_ where you had laid down. The bedroom you were in was a huge improvement in sleeping quarters, but still, you were suspicious of it. You hated being moved while you slept, and you had no idea what these people's intentions were.

A jolt of fear shot through you at the thought that these monsters, whoever they were, might be holding you captive. The monsters in the game had all attacked the main character, and you were already injured. How easy would it be for one of them to end your life, right now?

You made up your mind once you saw your cane leaning against the foot of the bed. You snatched it up, determined to get the hell out of here. You used your cane to push yourself up off of the mattress and…

 _THUD!_ You hit the ground heavily, landing on your hip. You let out a guttural sound, somewhere between pained and frustrated. The fall dazed you, and you were left sitting on the ground, staring dumbly at your leg. It was covered from foot to thigh in a thick, white bandage, rendering it completely immobile. What the hell?

Now that you were looking for it, there were a lot of things that had changed while you were out. You weren't wearing your own clothes; you were dressed in a baggy hoodie and stretchy shorts. You absolutely despised shorts, you would have never been caught dead in them. Someone else must have changed you, which sent shivers down your spine. That was… very creepy.

Your right ankle was wrapped in a bandage, too, but it was nowhere near as excessive as the left. You could still wriggle the joint a little, and you could even see a couple spots where blood had seeped through the wrapping. With all of the other, more pressing injuries you had sustained, you'd almost forgotten about the thorns that had broken the skin on your legs.

Speaking of other injuries, you reached up to touch your head. There was a bandage wrapped loosely around there, too, and your hair was no longer matted with blood. So, not only had someone dressed you, but they'd _cleaned_ you as well. Getting creepier by the minute.

Before you could finish your self assessment, the bedroom door flew open. Whoever it was immediately turned on the lights, momentarily blinding you. Instinctively, you grabbed your cane with both hands and started swinging it wildly around. Surprisingly, you connected with something, which let out a pained "Ooomph!" You reared back, ready to strike again, but before you could land another blow, a hand stronger than yours grabbed the weapon.

"Woah, woah, hey! Calm down!" Your jaw went slack when you finally stopped your assault to look at the figure in front of you. You let go of the cane.

"Heh, what, never seen a skeleton before?" Sans. It was goddamn _Sans_. Sure, you knew he lived in Snowdin, but after failing to find Toriel in the Ruins, you'd kind of given up on seeing familiar faces.

"Uhh... " He looked… strange, in person. It was one thing to see a two-dimensional, pixilated skeleton in a videogame, it was quite another to see a walking, talking version right in front of you.

"The name's Sans." He straightened up, taking your cane and propping it back up against the bed carefully. He was quite short, probably shorter than you, but, from your current position on the floor, he towered over you. "I found you sleeping in the woods… now, usually I'm all for taking a snooze anywhere and everywhere, but don't you think it was a little cold to be taking a nap outside?" Sans looked over at you to gauge your response, but you were too dumbstruck to humor him. His perma-grin slipped a little, displeased with your non-reaction.

"My bro and I patched you up. You're welcome for that, by the way." You realized you were being incredibly rude, and this broke you out of your daze. You blushed, embarrassed.

"Oh! I-I'm sorry, I mean... thanks." Unwilling to meet his eyes, you kept your gaze down as you picked at your borrowed sweater. "But, uh, I think my knee was fine. You didn't have to wrap up my whole leg. But, I mean-! Thanks, uh, anyway!" You bit your lip anxiously, hoping you didn't sound ungrateful. When you finally looked up, you saw that Sans' smile was still in place, but it was hard to tell if it was forced or not.

"My brother, Papyrus, he got a little enthusiastic. He did a good job though, huh?" You glanced down at your leg, so heavily bandaged that you might as well have been wearing a cast, then back up at Sans. He looked genuinely proud of his brother. It was sweet.

"Yeah, it's good. It hurts a little, though." Now that the excitement of waking up in a strange place was over, it really _did_ hurt. Not as bad as when you were walking on it, but perhaps the bandages could've been loosened a smidge. You supposed it was going to hurt no matter what, though; you figured monsters probably didn't have any ibuprofen just lying around to take the edge off. Sans' smile was tight.

"We can redo it, then. But first, we should get you back into bed, yeah?" He held out his arms, offering to pick you up. You hesitated, looking around to see if there was any way you could get yourself back up without being carried. Not that you were above asking for help, heaven knows you had to get used to that real early in life, but the whole skeleton thing was still kind of weirding you out. If it weren't for Papyrus' excessive bandaging, you probably could've done it on your own. But, as it stood, you didn't think you could avoid accepting help.

"Yeah, okay. But just pull me up onto my good leg, you don't have to carry me." You compromised, holding out your hand for Sans to take. He did, but you were unprepared for how strange it would feel to hold a skeleton's hand. You could feel each bone shifting with his every movement, and you were afraid to grip it too tightly for fear of dislocating something. You didn't have much of a choice, though; he yanked you to your feet quickly and you were forced to hold on for dear life. After you thanked Sans and sat yourself back down on the bed, you heard the telltale thudding of feet on stairs again before another familiar skeleton burst into the room.

"Sans! I heard something loud! I came as fast as I could, but I couldn't just leave the spaghetti and- Oh! Human! You're awake!" This was definitely Papyrus, there was no mistaking him. Over the top of his battle body, he was wearing an apron that said 'Kiss the Chef,' except 'Kiss the' was crossed out and the word 'Cool' was written sloppily above it in sharpie. He struck a dramatic pose, his cape somehow billowing behind him even though there was no wind indoors.

"It is I, The Great Papyrus, your savior and guardian! Humans are so very fragile, so I took it upon myself to wrap your injured leg so that your human healing process may proceed unhindered!" You barely managed to suppress a giggle; Papyrus was even more exuberant in real life. "I even graciously lent you my room! You can sleep in my racecar bed for the duration of your stay!" You took your first proper look around at the bedroom and, yeah, it did look like Papyrus' room from the game. Complete with an old computer in the far corner, a table full of action figures, and a racecar bed, which you were currently sitting on.

"Thank you, Papyrus. It's very nice to meet you and, uh, I don't mean to sound rude, but… I don't plan on staying too long. I'm kind of trying to get out of here." Sans and Papyrus shared an uneasy look. Papyrus crossed his arms in a way that made him look uncharacteristically insecure. It made your stomach drop with worry.

"Human! That, hmm, how do I put this?" He scratched his chin, unable to meet your eyes, "My brother and I have decided that you should stay here! But do not fear! We are not capturing you! It would just not be safe for you to leave." You clenched your hands, grasping the bed sheets under you tightly. Something was off, here. A child had been able to make it through the Underground in the game, it couldn't have been that dangerous, could it? Neither of the skeletons had been too fussed about Frisk's safety when they had passed through.

"Why isn't it safe? I mean, obviously there's monsters, but no one's attacked me so far!" You thought it best not to mention Flowey, then internally cursed your own mistake. How were you going to explain your injuries, then? But, thankfully, the brothers didn't question it. At least not yet.

Sans finally spoke up, saving Papyrus from his obvious discomfort. "Kid, public opinion on humans is pretty, uh, murdery right now. To put it bluntly, if you go outside, you'll be mauled." What? No, that wasn't right. That wasn't the Underground you knew! Your shock must have shown on your face, because Sans elaborated, "We had a human come through here a while ago, and they…" He glanced over at Papyrus, a bead of sweat forming on his brow, "...kind of messed things up around here. Now, our leader, Undyne, has put the word out to destroy any humans who fall down here. We monsters have a pretty big grudge against humans." He shrugged and went silent, letting you soak this all in. You couldn't believe this, what had happened to make Undyne-

Wait. You knew this. This was the aftermath of one of the many endings to the game. In fact, wasn't this the ending you got the very last time you played Undertale? Yes, you were sure of it now; the last time you played, you'd wanted to know what would happen if you took Toriel out of the picture, and no one else. Truthfully, it wasn't a very satisfying ending, and was especially bad now that you were actually living it.

"Not you guys, though?" You replied weakly, glancing from Sans to Papyrus. The taller skeleton, who had been quiet during Sans' explanation, quickly shook his head.

"No! The human from before was my friend, and I don't want to destroy anyone! And neither does Sans!" Sans' smile grew a little brighter after hearing Papyrus' declaration. He nodded resolutely.

"In fact, we kind of figured... ya know… you could stay here. Until, well, we figure out something else." His cheeks seemed a little blue, was Sans… blushing? You weren't really sure why, but it was cute nonetheless.

"Alright, but you know, I could sleep on the couch. You don't have to give up your room for me, Papyrus." Dammit, you shouldn't have said that. You weren't supposed to know that they had a couch. You bit down hard on your tongue nervously. Would they question that?

"Nonsense! The Great Papyrus would never allow a guest to sleep on the couch!" You let out the breath you'd been holding. Well, you supposed it wasn't a very big leap to assume they had a couch, anyway. Perhaps you were just getting overly paranoid. "Which reminds me… human! Do you like spaghetti?" You weren't sure how the couch discussion had reminded him of spaghetti, but you were glad for the change in conversation topic.

"I love it!" You replied with as much enthusiasm as you could muster. It really wasn't what you were in the mood for at the moment, but you couldn't find it in yourself to disappoint Papyrus. He looked very pleased with your response.

"Excellent! I must get back to the kitchen, then!" With that, he bounded out of the room, leaving you alone with Sans again. The skeleton looked at your mummified leg thoughtfully.

"Looks like I'll have to get you some crutches, huh? I think we have a pair in the shed… I'll be right back. Don't go anywhere." He winked, and you laughed loudly, covering your mouth with your hand. It must've been the absurdity of the whole situation, because the joke hadn't really been that funny. Sans seemed to enjoy your laughter, though, before he slipped out of the room, leaving you to contemplate everything you had just been told about the state of the Underground.


	6. Making Friends with the Power of Puns

After fetching you a pair of slightly-too-tall crutches, Sans offered to redo the bandaging on your leg. You accepted wholeheartedly, as your leg was getting very warm and starting to itch. You hadn't considered how awkward it would be until Sans' hands were on your thigh, unwrapping the bandage. You felt your face heat up, but Sans somehow managed to never actually touch your bare skin, which kept the encounter feeling clinical. It relaxed you a little, but it also brought up some earlier questions that you had almost forgotten about.

"So… whose clothes am I wearing?" You thought you could've made an educated guess based on what you'd seen of the skeletons' wardrobes, but it would be nice to know who exactly had seen you semi-nude, anyway. The question seemed to make Sans nervous; his hands stuttered a little as he continued to unwrap your many layers of bandages.

"Mine. I'm sorry, we should've asked you, but we didn't know how long you'd be out or what condition you'd be in. Pap cleaned the blood off of your legs and head, and I got you a change of clothes." The straightforward, honest answer caught you a little off-guard; you'd been expecting him to make some kind of joke out of it. You were sort of glad he didn't, though.

"O-oh! Well, that's okay, I guess. You don't have to apologize." There was a moment of silence as Sans finished up the third layer of bandages and moved on to the fourth, and hopefully final, one. "Thanks, actually. You and your brother are being really nice, taking in a stranger like me." Sans shrugged and, to your relief, didn't bat an eye when the long, surgical scars on your knee were finally revealed. He continued the conversation as if he hadn't noticed at all.

"To be honest, you don't seem like much of a stranger, pal. Dunno why, but I feel like I already know you…" He had a faraway look on his face, and his hands stilled for a moment. Your heart beat fast in your chest. Did Sans sense that there was something wrong with you? You really hoped not. You didn't even fully understand what was going on here; you certainly didn't want to have to explain the situation to the very characters you might have murdered in an alternate, virtual reality. Somehow, you didn't think that would go over too well. But Sans merely shook his head and grinned up at you,

"Heh, what can I say? I guess I knew you were going _tibia_ good friend." Before you could stop yourself, you snorted with mirth. You clapped a hand to your mouth and blushed, making Sans chuckle. "Sorry, but you're gonna have to get used to my jokes. I'm a _bone_ ified comedian."

"Stop!" You shrieked and kicked him lightly in the shoulder with your good leg. Sans winced in mock-pain, rubbing his shoulder in an exaggerated motion. You wouldn't have thought a skeleton could pout, but somehow he managed to convey the expression with just his eyes.

"Aw, c'mon! That one was pretty good! Throw me a _bone_!" Before you could reply, Papyrus yelled from downstairs,

"I SENSE BAD PUNS… SANS! STOP BOTHERING THE HUMAN! I WANT THEM TO LIKE US!" This only made you laugh again, though it was a little hysterical this time. You just couldn't believe this was actually happening. Not only were you talking to real, live versions of video game characters, but they were exactly how you imagined them being. It was surreal.

You managed to calm yourself down before the laughter got too out of control. In that time, Sans had finished re-bandaging your foot. You'd been so occupied with talking to Sans and listening to his jokes that you hardly even felt the pain of your broken ankle. Now that it was wrapped neatly again (this time the bandages stopped about halfway to your knee, with two wooden rulers being used as makeshift splits), you gingerly tried pressing your foot to the floor. This sent a sharp pain jolting up your leg… bad idea. You hissed, and Sans quickly jumped up to grab the crutches from the corner of the room.

"Don't do that, use these instead." You really hated crutches, but you didn't have much of a choice. Sans watched you intently as though ready to catch you at any moment, but you were a pro with crutches and didn't need any help getting up. "Dunno why you're so eager to stand up, anyway. Pap would've gladly brought your dinner up for you… you should take advantage of your excuse to be lazy while you can." He winked, which reminded you,

"Hey, how can skeletons blink, anyway?" You figured, while you were having this crazy, Alice-in-wonderland-esque experience, why not ask all of the questions you'd been dying to ask while playing the game? For a moment, Sans seemed stumped himself, then he just shrugged and waved his hands.

"Magic!" You rolled your eyes, but figured you wouldn't get a better explanation. After all, you were trapped in a video game with talking flowers and helpful rocks. A blinking skeleton was low on the long list of weird things you'd seen.

"Right. Well, I'm going downstairs. Maybe if you pretend to hurt yourself, Papyrus will bring you dinner in bed. You can be lazy in my place." You meant it as a joke, but the idea brought a mischievous glint to Sans' eyes. He looked around the room wildly, then dashed to the foot of Papyrus' bed to pick up your cane again.

"Mind if I use this?" Usually, you hated people playing with your important, life-changing medical equipment, but you really wanted to see what Sans was going to do with it. Plus, he'd asked nicely, so what the hell?

"Knock yourself out." He winked at you again (was he just doing it to bother you now?) and threw open the bedroom door.

"Papyrus!" Sans yelled for his brother, waiting for him to poke his head out of the kitchen before hobbling out of the room. He threw himself at the banister, draping his body over it dramatically. You laughed, both at his antics and his completely incorrect use of your cane. "Papyrus, I stubbed my toe! I can't possibly make it down the stairs! You'll just have to bring dinner up to me! I'll be in my room…" He tried to limp over to his room using the cane, but it was far too tall for him and he ended up tripping over it. You leaned on the doorframe, laughing too hard to support your own weight. Papyrus, however, did not look amused.

"Sans! Stop fooling around! You're distracting me from my delicious masterpiece!" With that, he disappeared back into the kitchen. Still lying on the ground, Sans looked at you and said with a straight face,

"I guess you could say my brother can... see right through me." You laughed hard enough to start snorting again. It was embarrassing, but Sans seemed to love it. You had never imagined Sans would be so lively and animated, but perhaps he was just happier than usual at the moment. Maybe it had something to do with having a guest to laugh at his jokes.

As soon as your laughter died down, you started to make your way down the flight of stairs. Even with Sans' help, it was slow going, and you were exhausted again by the time you slumped down onto the skeleton brothers' ugly, green couch. You were pleased to see that everything in their house looked exactly the same as in the game, with the exception of a bathroom sticking out to the right of the kitchen. Your mother would've had a fit over the amount of lint covering the hypnotizing, blue and purple carpet, not to mention the mound of sticky notes covering the immediate area around the lone sock by the television. But to you, it felt comfortable and homey. You sank into the lumpy couch and sighed, letting your crutches clatter to the floor. Sans sat down on the opposite side of the couch just before Papyrus burst out of the kitchen, balancing three plates in his hands.

"HUMAN! Prepare to be amazed by my culinary expertise! Nyeh heh heh!" It seemed impossible that the eccentric skeleton could've been balancing those plates when he was bounding forward so haphazardly. That is, until you looked at Sans, who was staring at the spaghetti with a blue-tinted eye. You smiled, but looked away before Sans could catch you staring. With a grand gesture, Papyrus swept one of the plates into your lap before sitting down between you and Sans.

The spaghetti didn't _look_ terrible. In fact, it actually smelled pretty good. Papyrus watched you eagerly as you took your first bite. The taste was, well, indescribable was one word for it. Some of the noodles were hard and crunchy, and the "sauce" was just mashed up tomatoes. But, honestly, it wasn't as bad as it could've been. You tried telling that to yourself as you forced down another bite.

"Mmm, it's… good, Papyrus. Where'd you learn to cook?" Of course, you already knew this, but you thought maybe if Papyrus was talking, he wouldn't notice the disgusted look on your face as you ate. He looked excited that you'd asked.

"Undyne taught me how! She's the best spaghettore AND empress! But we don't have cooking lessons anymore. She's very busy being the leader and doing leadery things, and I'm very busy being The Most Important Royal Person." He looked a little downcast about this, so you nudged his shoulder and said,

"Hey, maybe you and I could cook together? You could teach me your ways." Truthfully, you weren't very good in the kitchen and had a tendency to burn yourself accidentally, but it could be fun, anyway. Besides, Papyrus' face lit up again at your suggestion. His rapidly changing moods might get hard to keep up with.

"Human! What an excellent idea. Let's start now!"

"Wha-oh!" You yelped as Papyrus leaped up and pulled you to your feet (or rather, foot), barely managing not to dump spaghetti on the floor in the process. With a flourish, he handed you your crutches and bounded into the kitchen without waiting for you to follow. You looked over at the other end of the couch, ready to give Sans an exasperated look, only to find that his spot was empty. Huh.

Having nothing else to do, you made your way over to the kitchen, your crutches tapping rhythmically on the linoleum floor. Briefly, you were caught off guard by the height of the sink. It looked a lot more ridiculous in real life.

"Impressed? I increased the height of my sink. Now I can fit more bones under it! Take a looksy!" Despite being unnerved by Papyrus' verbatim recitation of the in-game dialog, you cracked open the cabinet door and took a peek underneath the sink. There was no dog this time, but the bones were stacked so high that you were surprised none of them tumbled out when the door was opened. You looked back over at Papyrus, who was staring at you expectantly, and gave him a thumbs up.

"Looks good, Papyrus. Where do you get all of these bones, anyway?" Another question that had always bothered you in the game. Your host looked a little stumped.

"Um… well… hm. Santa gave me a new special attack last year! But the rest of them… they just come when I call. That's why I have so many. They just keep showing up!" You were about to ask why Papyrus saved the used bones in the first place if he could just make more on command, but were distracted by the tall skeleton pulling an armful of tomatoes out of the fridge and dumping them unceremoniously on the counter.

From that point on, the afternoon became a very stressful game of "Prevent Papyrus from Burning Down the House." It was amusing how excited he was to show you how to make his special spaghetti (which turned out to be no different from his regular spaghetti), but not so amusing when he was wildly waving around a butcher's knife. Or cranking the heat up on the stove to dangerous levels. Or almost falling off a ladder when he tried to use the sink. You'd been planning on discreetly asking him probing questions to see just how many obstacles were between you and your goal of getting to the surface, but it was impossible to concentrate on anything other than preventing Papyrus from hurting himself.

Finally, the spaghetti was deemed complete. Since you'd both already eaten, Papyrus stored the newly-made meal in a tupperware container.

"I hope you found this experience educational, human!" You barely managed to hold back a derisive snort. In the game, you'd always found Papyrus to be charming and funny. But you were so exhausted from preventing disasters all afternoon that you were starting to find him irritating. You thought you should feel a little bad for thinking that, but you didn't really.

"Yeah, it was great." You were perhaps a little too snappy to pull off the lie, but Papyrus didn't seem to notice. Before he could rope you into anything else, you quickly said, "I think I'd like to rest for a while now." Papyrus gasped, holding his hands up to his face in a way that had you dreading whatever idea he was cooking up.

"Oh! Just in time, my favorite show is on! We can watch it together!" He grabbed your hand as if to lead you into the living room, before remembering that you needed that hand to use your crutches. He let you go awkwardly, then ran ahead of you to kneel in front of the television. You followed after him, sparing a longing glance to the front door. Sans was still gone, but you were sure that, if he were here, he would have rescued you from this.

"Hey Papyrus, where'd Sans go?" As you settled onto the couch resignedly, you decided to voice your thoughts. You thought maybe Papyrus would know when he'd get back, but the tall skeleton merely shrugged.

"Sans does his own thing usually. I don't know where he is half the time." He looked sad for a moment, but then brightened up, "But, he's always back for bedtime! I'm sure he'll be back soon!" Despite how overwhelming he could be, you felt a little bad for Papyrus. Now that Undyne was busy being the new leader and his brother was apparently gone for long stretches of time, he was probably incredibly lonely. No wonder he was excited to have you around. With that in mind, you tried to put on a happy face when some game show starring Mettaton appeared onscreen.

Your mind started to wander as Papyrus explained the needlessly complicated rules of the game show to you. You'd been hoping that Papyrus' favorite show was the news; at least that would've been relevant to your interests. But, knowing your luck, that was clearly too much to ask.

Just as your eyes were starting to drift shut, the front door opened to reveal Sans returning home from wherever he'd been. Papyrus, who seemed to never get tired, greeted him enthusiastically.

"Sans! You're home just in time… they're down to the last two contestants!" Sans crossed the threshold, brushing snow off of the top of his skull.

"Hey Pappers. Kid." You waved lazily at Sans, who chuckled at you. "Pap, what'd you do to them? Looks like you worked them down to the bone." Papyrus sighed loudly at the pun and answered reluctantly,

"I taught the human how to make spaghetti. Can you believe that they thought you had to take the noodles _out_ of the box before cooking them? Good thing they had me there to guide them, nyeh heh heh!" Papyrus reached over and ruffled your hair fondly, his gloved fingers actually feeling kind of nice on your head. Unfortunately, it also left your hair very staticy. You tried to flatten it down, but to no avail.

During the excitement of Sans getting home, Mettaton's game show came to an end. The winner ended up being a monster who looked like they might've been a relative of Aaron, what with their horse-like body and fish-like head. As soon as the show ended, Papyrus leapt up and exclaimed that it was bed time. It suddenly hit you how strange it was that these characters - no, _people_ \- all had routines and daily lives that you'd never known anything about while playing the game. You'd never thought about Papyrus having a consistent bedtime, but it seemed he did. It was little things like these that kept reminding you how odd this entire experience was.

The brothers helped you back up the stairs, Papyrus not really helping so much as hovering nervously behind you, ready to catch you if you lost your balance. None of you considered the problem looming ahead until you made it into Papyrus' room and sat down on his racecar bed.

"Ah, right! There is only one bed! What a conundrum." Papyrus looked around, before snapping his fingers excitedly. "Aha! I have the perfect solution!" He grew rigid, making his body stiff as a board before falling face-first onto the floor. His voice was muffled by the carpet. "This is not as comfortable as it looks." That got a laugh out of you, and Sans shook his head fondly.

"C'mon, bro, you're not sleeping on the floor. Howzabout we set you up on the couch?"

"No no, that's okay! I can take the couch… I don't want to impose." You interjected quickly. As much as you dreaded the thought of sleeping on that lumpy thing, it would've been bad manners not to at least try to give Papyrus his room back. A part of you hoped he would be too noble to allow this, and sure enough,

"We have already discussed this. A great host would not allow their guest to sleep on the couch, and I am the greatest of hosts!" He jumped up from the floor and adjusted his cape before posing dramatically. "I bid you goodnight, human! Nyeh heh heh!" With that, Papyrus took his leave, his feet thudding rapidly on the stairs as usual.

Suddenly, you were alone in the room with Sans. For some reason, it was more awkward this time. He shuffled his weight from foot to foot, as though balancing on the precipice of speech. You stayed silent, letting him decide for himself whether he wanted to say whatever was on his mind.

"Uh, thanks, for… hanging out with Pap today. Means a lot." You were surprised to hear him thank you so sincerely, and considered asking him where he'd disappeared to all day. But you held your tongue, figuring it was something that could wait until you knew each other better (or, rather, until _he_ knew _you_ better, since you liked to think you knew him pretty well already).

"It's no big deal. I like Papyrus. Thank you, again, for letting me stay here." Sans just grunted and shrugged,

" _Snow_ problem." He winked, and you laughed softly, rubbing your tired eyes with your hands. "You look dead tired, so I'll leave you be. G'night."

"Good night." Sans backed out of the room and flicked off the lights, closing the door only part-way so that a crack of light from the hallway filtered through. Soon enough, even that disappeared, and you heard Sans' door open and shut.

Even though you were exhausted, you found it hard to sleep. You'd just gotten to Snowdin, but already you were itching to leave. It seemed like you were surrounded by monsters who wanted to kill you on all sides. Maybe the skeleton brothers were just making it sound worse than it was, but you felt anxious about it nonetheless. Your mind was racing with ideas for how you were going to make it out of the Underground alive. All of the hostility surrounding you, combined with the added problem of Flowey thinking you were Chara, made it hard to come up with a feasible plan.

 _I'm safe for now. I'll worry about it some other time._ You thought as your eyes closed, and you drifted off into a restless slumber.


	7. A Quiet Area

The following days passed in much the same way as the first. You would wake up, take a shower (the skeletons' bathroom had only a shower and no toilet, but you found that, for some reason, you never needed one. You chalked it up to magic), eat breakfast, and then do whatever Papyrus had planned for the two of you that day. It wasn't so bad; after a few days, dealing with Papyrus' exuberancy 24/7 had gotten so annoying that it looped back around to being endearing again. The only problem with your new routine was that you were not, under any circumstances, allowed to leave the house. That tended to put a damper on things, since there were only so many indoor activities you and Papyrus could do together.

Papyrus, bless his nonexistent heart, never left the house either. After overhearing a conversation between the brothers (the walls in this house were very thin), you knew this was because he felt guilty that you were trapped inside all the time, and wanted to entertain you so that you wouldn't feel bad about it. The whole time, you'd thought that you had been the one babysitting Papyrus, but, after hearing this, you weren't sure it wasn't the other way around. Sans seemed grateful to you, either way. Although he hadn't verbally thanked you since that first night, whenever Papyrus would tell his brother wildly embellished stories of what you two had done that day, Sans' perma-smile would grow a little bit brighter.

Sometimes the elusive shorter skeleton was still home when you woke up, but most of the time he was gone from dawn until dusk. As a result, you didn't see much of him. There was never really a good time to ask him where he went all day, and every time you were about to try he'd quickly change the topic of conversation, as if he knew what was on your mind. Eventually, you just accepted that it wasn't a question you were going to get an answer to anytime soon. That was why you were surprised when Sans announced that he was taking a day off.

"A day off from what?" You asked Sans as Papyrus gasped excitedly at your side. He just winked at you, as he tended to do a lot. Papyrus leapt up from his seat on the couch, tugging at Sans' arm.

"WE MUST SHOW YOU OUR PROGRESS ON THE PUZZLE, SANS!" You and Papyrus had started a 2,000-piece puzzle the other day. Papyrus was extremely good at it, and, instead of working on it, you spent most of your time trying to discretely sabotage the puzzle so that it would last longer. "YOU CAN HELP US FINISH IT!" Sans grinned, but didn't budge.

"I could, but I was thinking… it's been awhile since you were at your job, bro. Undyne's gonna get worried soon." For a moment, Papyrus looked like he wanted to protest, but after glancing down at you, he looked resigned.

"I… yes, you're right. Okay! I'll be back after I'm done standing around and looking cute! See you later Sans, human!" As he walked past your spot on the couch, Papyrus ruffled your hair, a habit he had taken to doing at least once a day. It made you feel like his weird human pet every time he did it, but it was kind of nice, anyway. With one final wave, he walked out the door, leaving you alone with Sans.

There was a moment of awkward silence in which both you and Sans avoided staring at each other, before you broke it by asking,

"So, uh, what do you want to do today?" He shrugged,

"I dunno, what do you wanna do?" You huffed and rolled your eyes,

"Well, it's your house, so you decide!" You remembered having this exact conversation many times before, while visiting different friend's houses. It felt like a lifetime ago.

"Nah, you're the guest, you pick." Sans winked, and you threw a couch pillow at him. He batted it away easily. "Actually, I did have something in mind." His jaw clicked as he popped it in and out. A nervous tick? "You, uh, must be bored by now, sitting inside all the time. Mind if I take you somewhere?" He took a hand out of his pocket to offer it to you. After staring dumbly for a moment, you quickly took the proffered hand and stood up.

"I thought it was too dangerous to go outside?" Sans handed you your crutches and you hastened to settle them under your arms.

"The place I wanna show you is pretty secluded. And I know a shortcut, so no one will see us. I promise." Oh, boy. You'd been kind of hoping to try out one of Sans' shortcuts sometime, but of course you hadn't wanted to let on that you already knew about his little trick. You grinned widely. This should be interesting, if nothing else.

"Alright, lead the way!" Sans mock-saluted you before he stuffed his hands back in his pockets and turned around, walking toward the kitchen. You followed close behind him; you didn't want to get left behind in whatever inter-dimensional wormhole he was about to drag you through. Your attention was occupied with trying not to accidentally hit Sans in the shins with your crutches, so it took you a moment to notice that the ground beneath you had changed. Instead of the shitty linoleum of the kitchen, you were walking on soft, blue grass. You stopped abruptly and blinked. What the hell?

"Fast shortcut, huh?" You looked up to see Sans winking at you. Bastard.

"Where are we?" You asked, but it only took a glance to figure out where you were. The cavern Sans had taken you to was much darker than Snowdin and was bathed in a light blue glow. The water and plant life surrounding you seemed to be the source of the dim light. It was quiet, but if you listened closely, you could hear faint whispering coming from all around you. It would have been eery, had the cavern not been so beautiful and full of life.

"We're in Waterfall," Sans murmured in a low voice, "Be careful what you say, there're echo flowers all over this place. They repeat the last thing they heard, over and over again." At your feet, you heard a familiar voice whisper, "They repeat the last thing they heard, over and over again." Sans seemed to hear it too, as his smile slipped a little and he started walking again. You followed, your head swiveling around wildly as you tried to look at everything all at once. "They're pretty cool, but terrible if you're trying to keep a secret." That sent a shiver down your spine. There were plenty of secrets you were trying to keep. _But the echo flowers needn't hear of them,_ you reassured yourself.

"Look." Sans stopped suddenly and you bumped into him from behind. You let out an embarrassing squeak as you lost your balance from the impact, but boney hands grabbed your shoulders and steadied you before you could fall. "Heh, don't go _falling_ for me already." Your cheeks burned, but thankfully Sans moved on from the incident without further teasing. Though, interestingly, his hands drifted down to your forearms before falling away completely. You weren't sure what to make of that.

"What I was trying to say is… look up." He pointed to the ceiling, and your eyes instinctively followed his finger's path. Above you was a breathtaking array of gemstones, all reflecting various shades of blue and purple light. Tilting your head even slightly caused them all to sparkle. "This is the closest we've got to stars down here." The way he said it, all matter-of-fact, sounded so sad.

"Back up on the surface, I have this thing where, if it's a clear night, I always have to stop to look at the stars. People used to tease me about it, but it's just, like, a compulsion. I'm drawn to them, I think they're so fascinating." A tiny voice in your head said you should stop talking, you were being weird. But you ignored it and kept rambling. "And there's this one constellation… Orion, I don't know if you've ever heard of it… but I can always find it, if it's out. Everytime, without fail. It's my favorite." When you finally tore your gaze away from the faux-stars in the ceiling, you saw that Sans was staring at you. You bit your lip, a little self-conscious. Finally, he spoke,

"You'll have to show me, sometime." Logically, you knew that wasn't possible. You couldn't even figure out a way to get _yourself_ to the surface, let alone bring the monsters with you. But, to hell with it. Maybe eventually, against all odds, you'll save everyone down here and show Sans the stars.

"Yeah, I will." You said, and you meant it. It wasn't a _promise_ , but an _I'll try my best_. Sans seemed content with that, since he had a goofy smile on his face. You shifted your weight around restlessly, unused to being stared at with this kind of intensity. Sans mistook your embarrassed expression as one of pain, though, and quickly snapped out of his daze.

"Here, why don't you sit down? Unless, you want to leave…"

"No!" You snapped quickly, never wanting this field trip to end. "No, I'll sit, if you help me." After carefully helping you settle down on the soft grass, Sans plopped down next to you. The two of you fell into a comfortable silence, a few particularly noisy echo flowers interrupting your thoughts every now and then. You tried to listen to their disjointed conversations, but it was hard to put anything coherent together with all of them whispering at once. Their noisiness made you wonder just how many people had been over here, and how recently.

"There's so many echo flowers… do people come through here a lot?" The flowers around the two of you fell silent, as though listening to your conversation for future use.

"Eh, no. No one really comes here anymore." A couple flowers started echoing Sans. They seemed to prefer his voice over yours, even though he was being quieter than you. You didn't really blame them.

"Why not?" Tired of leaning on your elbows, you laid all the way back and rested your head on the grass. You folded your arms across your stomach. Sans stared at your hands mindlessly as he contemplated something.

"Dunno. I guess people just kind of lost hope…" Sans mirrored your position, lying on the ground beside you. "They used to make wishes here, y'know, like how people make wishes on stars. But not so much, anymore." You hummed knowingly. You knew it was because of Frisk (and maybe partially you, but you weren't willing to take the blame for all of this) and how, in this timeline, they'd destroyed the monsters' only chance at breaking the barrier. You could have feigned ignorance and asked Sans about what had changed, but the moment felt too raw to be ruined by a casual lie like that.

Feeling brave, you asked, "Do you have any wishes?" Sans chuckled and bumped your arm with his elbow. You were lying close enough together that you couldn't tell if it was accidental or not.

"You sure ask a lot of questions." Your face grew hot.

"Uh, sorry! I'll stop." It was true, you were always trying to get information out of Sans and Papyrus, whether it was intentional or not. You must've seemed nosey.

"No, s'okay. Hmm, a wish?" He scratched his head, thinking. "Guess the only thing I'd wish for s'for Papyrus to be happy. Not that he's not happy now… he's always great at making the best out of the situation, y'know? That's part of why he's so cool. It's just that, he could be happier, and I wish he was" Sans shrugged and scratched his head, trying to play it off like it was no big deal, but you thought it was sweet.

"You're a good brother, Sans." You said this with the utmost confidence. If there was one thing you knew about Sans from your many times playing the game, it was that. Your own time in the Underground only confirmed it. Sans shrugged again, his cheeks flushing blue.

"I used to be, before I-" His teeth clicked together sharply. You leaned back up on your elbows, intrigued.

"Y'know, I'm pretty good at keeping secrets. You can tell me." You smiled slyly, but were disappointed when Sans looked away.

"Eh, no, forget about it. And, hey, you still have to tell me your wish." He nudged you with his elbow again and, yeah, it was definitely deliberate. As you wracked your brain trying to think of something, you let your eyes wander. In the distance, on the other side of a stream of water, you thought you saw something out of place. It was yellow and, as you focused on it, it disappeared into the ground.

"We should go." Nervously, you tugged on Sans' arm. You couldn't be sure, but you thought you saw…

"Hey, you're not getting out of it that easily!" Sans laughed and wouldn't budge. You tapped your good foot impatiently, glancing anxiously across the stream as you tried to think of a wish that would satisfy Sans.

"Uh… I wish that… I could break the barrier." You started trying to stand up, but couldn't get past kneeling without help. You tugged Sans into a sitting position impatiently. He let himself be manipulated, but didn't seem to be in any hurry.

"Woah, really?" Sans looked surprised, but you didn't really get why. You hadn't thought it was a very outlandish wish, yourself.

"Yeah, really, now can we go?" Finally, Sans helped you to your feet.

"What's the hurry?" He picked up your crutches for you. Your eyes darted around, looking for that flash of yellow again. You took a deep breath.

"I just… thought I saw someone. I might be wrong, but I think we should go." It wasn't a lie, really. It could've been anyone. You were hoping it wasn't who you thought it was, because if he was following you… well, you had to watch your back from now on. Sans frowned, which looked strange on him. You didn't think you'd ever seen him frown before.

"Yeah, let's go." This time, as you walked with Sans through his shortcut, he kept a protective hand on your shoulder until you had reached the safety of the house.


	8. House of Straw

The days following your excursion to Waterfall, Sans seemed on edge. Which was strange, coming from the most relaxed person you'd ever met. He didn't act terribly different, at least not enough for Papyrus to notice. But more than once you caught him glancing anxiously out the window, as though expecting someone to show up. Though he was still gone in the afternoons, he stayed home later in the mornings and got back earlier from wherever he went during the day. He even came up with a plan for if anyone happened to come calling, which he'd proposed to you and Papyrus the day after Waterfall. If Sans was home, Papyrus was to answer the door and stall for time while Sans helped you up the stairs and into Papyrus' room. If Sans wasn't home, you were supposed to hide in the bathroom. It would look a little weird to have the bathroom door shut, but hopefully any would-be guests wouldn't notice. That was the plan, anyway.

You weren't so paranoid about getting random visitors; your mind was rather more occupied with the disturbing realization that Flowey was following you. Perhaps you should have expected it. After all, he did stalk your character in the game. And, after you told him you were Chara, of course he was interested in you. It didn't really change anything, you tried to tell yourself. But it was hard not to think about it. What if Flowey caught you doing something out of character for Chara? What if he already knew you were lying, and was just waiting to get you alone so that he could confront you?

You were on edge, and even Papyrus was beginning to notice.

"Human? Are you alright?" Dammit, you'd been staring out the window again, hadn't you? Your gaze snapped back to your companion, who was looking at you with concern. In his outstretched hand was a scrambled Rubik's cube. Sans had brought the toy home for Papyrus a few days prior (with no word as to how he got ahold of it), but, though Papyrus had figured the puzzle out in ten minutes flat, he preferred to scramble it up and watch you solve it, instead. You took it from him and began the methodical process of matching the colors up, the familiar routine soothing your frayed nerves.

"I'm fine, just… tired. Didn't get much sleep last night." It wasn't a lie. Generally speaking, you didn't sleep much anymore. And when you did, you had strange dreams. They were never very specific, just vague shapes occasionally accompanied by the stomach-lurching feeling of falling. But they left you with a general feeling of uneasiness. As you were about to finish up the Rubik's cube, you noticed that one of the edge pieces was in the wrong place. In your lapse of concentration, you must have made a mistake. Shit.

"Oh! I know exactly how to fix that… you should join Sans and I for storytime!" Your hands stuttered as you worked on fixing the cube.

"Storytime?"

"Yes! I can't sleep unless Sans tells me a story before bedtime. You should join us! Sans even does all the voices!" He said this proudly, as though this were a big selling point. You finally finished the Rubik's cube and handed it back over.

"Well, in that case, how could I say no?" Papyrus clapped his gloved hands together delightedly, happy both at your agreement and at the completion of the puzzle.

"Well done, human, you solved it in two minutes and forty-three seconds! But I still think you could do better! Maybe one day you will be as great a puzzle solver as me! Well, probably not, but it is good to have goals and aspirations, right?"

After three hours of solving and re-solving the Rubik's cube, you were about to lose your mind. You'd made the grave error of telling Papyrus about how humans on the surface held competitions to see who could solve Rubik's cubes the fastest, and Papyrus was determined to train you to beat the world record. You were pretty sure Papyrus himself would have no problem winning such a competition, but he was more interested in helping you than doing it himself. It didn't help that it took him longer to scramble the cube than it took you to solve it, since he insisted that certain configurations were harder for you to solve than others. You had no luck trying to convince him to just give it a few random twists.

Eventually, you managed to drag Papyrus away from the cube and convince him to work on the nearly-completed puzzle with you in his room. The front door happened to open just as Paps did the honors of putting in the final piece.

"SANS! THE PUZZLE HAS BEEN DEFEATED! COME AND LOOK!" Papyrus shouted over his shoulder, his excited voice carrying easily through the closed door of his bedroom.

"GUESS AGAIN, PUNK!" Your heart nearly leapt out of your chest when you heard a female voice shouting back. Was that…?

You barely had time to think before Papyrus was shoving you to the floor. Instinctively, you struggled against him. "Papyrus, what-" He clapped a boney hand over your mouth, using the other to push you under the bed. It was a tight fit; your chest was pressed uncomfortably against the bottom of the bed, and you couldn't take a deep breath under its weight. Papyrus just managed to shove your crutches under the bed with you before the door burst open.

"UNDYNE!" Papyrus yelled before standing up, ramrod straight. From your position, you could only see his feet. "W-what are you doing here?!" Another pair of feet, clad in combat boots, entered the room. They marched straight up to Papyrus, and suddenly his feet disappeared from view. Judging by his surprised yelp, you figured he must have been picked up.

"Hey, nerd!" Her voice sounded very… butch, for lack of a better term. You would've been excited to see her, had you not been terrified out of your wits. Papyrus' feet returned to your view as Undyne set him down. "You haven't been showing up for work lately, I was worried you were slacking off! You're not turning into your brother, are you?" There was a thumping sound before Papyrus stumbled backwards, toward the bed. You imagined Undyne might have given him a friendly punch to the shoulder, but you couldn't be sure.

"N-no!" Papyrus squeaked. You'd never heard him so nervous before. You feared that his suspicious behavior would give you away, but there was nothing you could do about it from your position. Undyne's boots moved to stand next to the newly-completed puzzle. You couldn't pinpoint why, but it felt like her looking at it was an invasion of your privacy. You felt strangely defensive as she judged it.

"Hey, did you do this all by yourself?" Her words might've sounded condescending coming from anyone else, but in fact she sounded quite proud. Papyrus bounced on his heels.

"Yes! Yes, all by myself, completely alone!" You heard a sharp _slap!_ followed by an _oomph!_

"Nice one! So, hey, uh, I was wondering… we haven't had a cooking lesson in a long time, did you want to have one now?" _Yes, please, please leave…_ You thought desperately.

"R-right now? Um, sure?! Let's go to your house!" Undyne laughed uproariously.

"We can't! It flooded, remember? We'll just have to cook here!" Dammit. Looked like you were going to be hiding in the bedroom for a while, then.

"You still haven't cleaned that up yet?" Papyrus sounded disapproving. Despite the situation, you were still amused at their conversation. You wondered how exactly Undyne had managed to flood her house. You wished that things were different so that you could talk to her without fearing for your life.

"Pfft, no! I don't even live there anymore, anyway!" You figured that this meant Undyne lived in the castle now. Perhaps that was partly why Sans had felt safe taking you to Waterfall before.

"Well, as your greatest friend, I cannot let this laziness continue! I will have to help you fix your house! But… not today. Today, we cook!" Either Papyrus was very quickly becoming a much better liar, or he had completely forgotten about you already. You let out an involuntary sigh of relief as both pairs of shoes began to leave the room.

"Hey! Wait a minute!" Your heart stuttered as Undyne's boots turned and marched toward the bed. You clutched your crutches in front of you, even though you knew they would do nothing to hide you from view. Undyne walked to the foot of the bed, her feet right in front of your face. You could've leaned forward and licked her boots, if you'd wanted to.

"What is this?!" Undyne picked up your cane, which had been leaning against the bed ever since the first day you'd arrived there. You closed your eyes and cursed silently. You'd completely forgotten it was even there; you didn't use it anymore, since you were on crutches now.

"It's… that's… part of my costume! Y-yeah! But, I don't use it much… because… it's too small for me!" Honestly, you were kind of impressed at Papyrus' bold-faced lie. It was better than you would have expected from him. Perhaps you were a bad influence.

"Hah! Why don't you make it taller, then?" You heard the tell-tale clicking sound of Undyne changing the adjustable height on your cane. You ground your teeth together; you absolutely hated people messing with the device. In a matter of seconds, your personal opinion of Undyne dropped significantly. But, there wasn't much you could do about it. "There! try it now!" You could just see the bottom of the cane as it was passed over to Papyrus, who grudgingly took a few steps with it.

"Thanks, Undyne, it's much better." Papyrus placed it gently back where it belonged as Undyne scoffed.

"Don't know why you'd want a cane for your costume, anyway. Isn't it supposed to be a battle-body? A cane is wimpy, it would only slow you down!" Your knuckles grew white as you clutched the crutches tightly, your jaw popping with the effort of keeping your mouth shut. People have said worse things to your face, so you didn't understand why the comment stung as bad as it did. You were almost just as angry at Papyrus for not saying anything in response, though logically you knew that he couldn't stick up for you without blowing your cover. Regardless, you were unspeakably glad when both of them left the room, Undyne listing off all of the ingredients they'd need for cooking while Papyrus shut the bedroom door carefully.

You waited with bated breath for the sounds of their voices to fade to a distant murmur before beginning the slow process of dragging yourself out from underneath the bed. The whole scene had been too tense for you to notice it before, but your leg had been bent at an awkward angle the entire time. Your bad ankle throbbed and your knee ached. The ankle was to be expected, you supposed, but you wondered what could have possibly happened to the knee. Perhaps you'd hit it on the racecar bed frame when Papyrus pushed you under it.

After many minutes of awkward shuffling, you finally freed yourself. You scowled at the bed and flipped it the bird. It made you feel a little better. Your frown only deepened as you snatched up your cane from your seated position on the floor, changing its height back to where you liked it before stuffing it under the bed where no one could mess with it again. Before you left it there, though, you gave it a fond stroke. Sure, it was an inanimate object, but it had sentimental value and you didn't like people making fun of it.

Then, suddenly, you found yourself with nothing to do. You sat there dumbly, holding your crutches but having no way to get yourself to a standing position. Maybe eventually you could have figured out how to stand on your own, but it wasn't worth the effort when you had nowhere to go, anyway. Instead, you scootched yourself backward until you came to rest straight across from the bedroom door, wedged between Papyrus' desk and the closet. You figured you would just sit quietly and listen to the bangs and clashes coming from the kitchen, and if there were any suspicious sounds, you'd hide in the closet.

As you sat there, you tried not to think of anything, particularly not of how bored you were. The situation was the perfect balance between nerve-wracking and dull so that you were mind-numbingly bored, yet too on-edge to do anything other than listen to the sounds of your potential murderer making spaghetti downstairs. However, you weren't left idle for long, as the sound of the front door opening again sent you scrambling to hide in the closet.

Even through two closed doors and a flight of stairs, you could hear the telltale rumble of Sans' voice mixing with Papyrus and Undyne's. While they talked endlessly, you wondered how late it was, since your eyes were starting to droop despite the tense atmosphere. The pitch black of the closet only made your exhaustion worse, and your attention slipped for a moment too long...

"Hey, kid? I know you're in here… you can come on out." You jumped to wakefulness at the sound of Sans' soft voice just outside of the closet door, alarmed that you'd managed to fall asleep so quickly. He must've taken a shortcut, since you hadn't heard the bedroom door open. From your seated position, you reached up and turned the doorknob to find the skeleton standing in the middle of the room, a strained grin on his face. You must've looked pathetic, since he hurried to grab you under the arms and pulled you to your feet. Sans spoke again before you could say anything.

"Undyne's still downstairs," He said in a low whisper while taking your crutches out of the closet, "I'm gonna take you to my room, in case she comes back up here. That okay with you?" He kept a hand on you at all times, first on your shoulder, then on your elbow as you got your crutches in position. You were aware enough to notice, but too tired to analyze it. Instead, you just nodded numbly, staring at the flame design on Papyrus' carpet.

Before you knew what was happening, you were already in Sans' room, its owner tugging you forward toward his unmade bed. On any other day, you would've loved to get a glimpse of his room, as you had never been invited in it before now. Or you would've cracked some joke about him taking you to bed. But the events of the day, combined with your lack of sleep last night, left you incredibly weary. So instead of doing any of that, you went where Sans directed you and flopped down onto his bed.

"You sure you want me here?" At least you had enough foresight to ask permission before making yourself at home. Sans chuckled as he closed the blinds on his window, plunging the room into complete blackness,

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure." You gave him a weak thumbs-up before swinging your legs up onto the bed, not bothering with the covers before instantly laying back and closing your eyes.

"'Kay. Thanks." Before completely drifting off again, you thought you felt the tips of Sans' phalanges brushing lightly against your forehead. Despite the chilling sounds of Undyne making her presence known downstairs, you felt safe and protected as you fell asleep.


	9. Sugar and Cyanide

_There is a mirror standing in front of you._

 _It's tall and wide, spanning your entire field of vision. You want to look around to see how big the mirror really is, but you can't seem to tear your eyes away from your own reflection._

 _You are nude, and, at first, you're deeply bothered by it. You're in an unfamiliar place, with all of your bodily imperfections on display. It feels like someone's watching you, even though you can't see anyone in the reflection of the bare room you're in. Despite your nakedness, you don't make any move to cover yourself. You have the deep sense that it would only aggravate whoever was watching._

 _As you stare at your reflection, you see something on your back. Its indistinct shape is peering over your shoulder, a black mass that you can't seem to focus on. Whenever you try, your eyes just slip away. Now that you've seen it, you think you can feel it there, tickling your skin. Is it just your imagination?_

 _You take a step forward, unaided. Your ankle doesn't hurt, but you can't quite remember why it should, anyway. The thing on your back seems to ripple… excitedly? You get right up close to the mirror, as close as you can get without touching it. Your reflection smiles maniacally._

 _...Wait, you didn't do that._

 _You watch with a sick fascination as your reflection closes its eyes (Have you ever seen your own eyes closed before? Perhaps in a discarded picture, once or twice). The mass on your back vibrates wildly. You can feel it crawling, digging its claws in and scuttling around… you don't like this anymore. This isn't interesting or fun. Your reflection's eyes are still closed, but you don't want them to open. You try to run, but you can't. You try to look away, but you can't. Your breath hitches as you begin to cry. You want it to stop, stop, stopstopstopstopstop-_

 _Your reflection opens its eyes._

 _Its eyes are black._

You woke to a hand touching your shoulder.

"GAHHH!" Lurching into a sitting position, you jerked away from the touch.

"Woah, woah, woah," After a moment of panic, you recognized Sans, holding up his hands and backing away slowly, "it's just me, kid."

Panting heavily, you took a moment to adjust to your waking surroundings. You were in a dark room, barely able to tell where you were despite the fact that your eyes were well-adjusted to the dim light. You recognized Sans' shape, mostly by the pinpricks of white in his eyes. Underneath you was a bed… or, more like a mattress, because there didn't seem to be a bed frame. The sheet that was supposed to cover it wasn't even on; it was lying in a clump at your side. However, there was a thick blanket that had been covering you, but was now tangled around your legs as though you had been thrashing in your sleep. You didn't remember that being there when you had fallen asleep. Finally, you looked up to see the vague shapes of a dresser and a treadmill, and something near your feet that was… moving?

"I'm in your room." You stated the rather obvious fact, purely for your own benefit. Your racing heart began to slow and the sticky sweat on your back and face started to cool. "How long was I asleep?"

Sans dropped his hands and put them in his pockets. "Hour and a half, more or less." You groaned and rubbed your face with your hands. Not nearly enough time to justify having that horrible nightmare. "Sorry, but, uh, Undyne's leaving now and I think Paps is gonna want to talk to you. Trust me, you'd rather have me waking you up than him." Sans shuffled his feet, looking a little uncomfortable despite his smile. "And… well, you looked like you needed waking up." You swiped a hand through your hair and it came away wet. Damn, you must've looked awful. Did you do something embarrassing while you were in the throes of your nightmare? Your face flushed red at the thought, and you were glad it was at least dark.

No sooner had the thought crossed your mind than the bedroom door flew open, bathing the room in the bright light of the hallway.

"HUMAN! OH MY GOD! I'M SO SORRY!" Before you knew what was happening, you were enveloped in an uncomfortably boney hug. Papyrus lifted you off of the bed, seemingly determined to squeeze the life out of you. You let out a surprised wheeze, but had the presence of mind to hug Papyrus back. Unfortunately, that only made him hold you tighter. "I DIDN'T KNOW UNDYNE WAS GOING TO COME! I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO! I HOPE I DIDN'T HURT YOUR FRAGILE, HUMAN BODY... ARE YOU HURT?"

 _I'm going to be if you don't put me down soon._ "No, no, I'm fine. You did great! Good thinking, putting me under the bed like that." Thankfully, Papyrus set you back down onto the mattress, but still kept his gloved hands on your shoulders.

"Really?! I mean, of course! I am the master of quick-thinking! Nyeh heh heh!" He stepped back and put his hands on his hips, grinning proudly.

"Yeah, good job, Paps." Sans said earnestly, and Papryus preened at the praise. "But, uh, I was thinking… if Undyne's gonna just burst in like that, maybe you shouldn't be hiding out in Papyrus' room. My room's always locked anyway, don't think Undyne's even seen the inside of it. Might be safer if you moved in here." Sans eyed you warily, as though expecting you to protest his suggestion. Actually, you thought it was a good idea, but were prevented from expressing your opinion by Papyrus,

"Wowie, Sans! You're okay with that?! But you HATE other people being in your room!" He paused and looked around, as though just realizing where the three of you were. Sans shrugged.

"What can I say? This room is _sans_ ational, I'd hate to give it up." As Papyrus groaned, the shorter skeleton winked at you. That was what made you laugh, more than the pun itself. "But I suppose I can make an exception. I wouldn't want to leave you without a _leg_ to stand on." He nodded with mock seriousness to your bum leg, but Papyrus was already on his way out the door, yelling over his shoulder,

"I AM LEAVING BEFORE THIS GETS OUT OF HAND! HUMAN, GOODNIGHT. BROTHER, ENJOY SLEEPING ON THE LUMPY COUCH!" Papyrus' cackling could be heard from down the hall, until the slamming of his bedroom door abruptly cut him off.

Sans let out a low chuckle, his face half-illuminated from the light of the hallway, "Well, guess that's settled, then." Your eyes wandered over to the trash tornado, which had been the thing you'd seen moving earlier. You kind of missed Papyrus' room already.

"Do you think Undyne will come over again?" You asked calmly as you avoided looking at Sans, working on untangling the blanket from yourself instead. You didn't particularly want him to see the fear in your eyes at the thought of getting caught by the new leader of the Underground. When he didn't answer right away, you continued, "She seems lonely. I think she misses Papyrus… they used to hang out more, right?" You looked up to see Sans staring at you, a contemplative look on his face. It felt like he was analyzing you, and it made your skin crawl.

"You're pretty good at reading people, kid." It wasn't a bad thing, but the way Sans said it, so matter-of-fact, made it feel like he was calling you out. You fidgeted nervously as you picked at a loose thread on your blanket. The tension was broken when Sans shrugged, "But, now that you mention it, you're probably right. Maybe, if Paps goes over to her place more often, she won't come over here so much. I'll talk to him about it." Sans wiped a hand over his tired face.

"You know, you two can leave me alone sometimes, if Paps has to do his job and you have to do… whatever it is you do. I'm not gonna burn down the house." You teased, and Sans' smile brightened.

"Heh, if you're sure you'll be okay… don't want you to trip on the stairs, or somethin'" Both of you glanced over at your crutches before looking back at each other.

"Ah, yeah… I should be fine." There was a beat of awkward silence before a loud banging noise from Papyrus' room prompted Sans to shuffle toward the door.

"I should go, Paps is probably waiting for his bedtime story. Sleep well." He shot you a knowing look, and your cheeks burned.

"Y-you too." With that, Sans slipped out of the room, shutting the door softly behind him and plunging the room back into darkness.

A loud groan escaped your lips as you flopped back onto the mattress, covering your eyes in the crook of your elbow. The truth was, your ankle was already mostly healed. You weren't sure whether it had really been broken or just sprained, but you'd already begun doing stretches on it and letting it bear a little weight when nobody was looking. You estimated a week before you had full range of motion on it again and could ditch the crutches completely.

But still, you hid your progress from the brothers. You kept wrapping your leg after every shower and you carefully kept your foot from touching the ground whenever anyone was watching. All of these secrets were beginning to weigh on you, but telling Sans and Papyrus about this was out of the question. For one thing, you weren't sure what the brothers would do about your situation once you were back to one hundred percent. You didn't _think_ they would kick you out, but you couldn't hide in their house forever. This change might prompt them to start thinking about the future, and you selfishly didn't want to deal with that just yet.

The bigger problem was Flowey. You hadn't seen him since Waterfall, but you were sure he was keeping an eye on you. You'd told him that you were waiting for your ankle to heal before enacting your "plan"... if you stopped using your crutches, he would expect you to do something.

Truth be told, you had no idea _what_ you were going to do. You'd thought about it over and over, spending many sleepless nights wracking your brain for half-remembered video game lore, but you just couldn't see any way to get yourself out of the Underground. If Toriel and Asgore were both dead, then there were no boss monsters left whose souls you could absorb. Perhaps you could've tried to find the six human souls that Asgore had collected, but even if you did, humans can't absorb other human souls. Having them wouldn't do you any good.

You rolled over in bed, pressing your face into Sans' pillow. _I don't need to worry about it right now,_ You lied to yourself, _All I need to be concerned about is getting a good night's rest…_ The last thing you thought about before drifting into an uneasy sleep was how you hadn't gotten the chance to join Papyrus and Sans for their bedtime story tradition.

After a (thankfully) dreamless sleep, you woke to someone's boney finger poking you repeatedly in the shoulder. This was how Papyrus woke you up every morning, though, so it was pretty par for the course.

"Psst! Human! Are you awake? I must show you something!" Papyrus whispered in your ear, though his version of whispering was equivalent to anyone else's normal speaking voice.

"M'up, jus' a minute." You swatted the skeleton's hand away and stretched, yawning deeply. Papyrus waited impatiently, ready to hand you your crutches as soon as you stood.

"Hurry!" He quickly ushered you out of the room, pointing to the couch downstairs as soon as you stepped into the hallway. "Look!" You blinked a few times, clearing the sleep away from your eyes. On the couch was Sans, who you didn't immediately recognize since he was swathed in a tight bundle of blankets. Only his head and arms were peaking out of the blanket-burrito, one arm stretched out in front of him, palm up, and the other hugging a couch pillow to his chest. You squinted. It looked like his mouth was moving, but his eyes were closed.

"He claims he doesn't talk in his sleep, but now I have proof! Nyeh heh heh!" Papyrus cackled softly, and you smiled. Sans looked so unguarded, cuddling the pillow like he was. It was cute. You wished you could hear what he was saying, but you were too far away. While observing Sans' sleeping position, a light bulb went off in your head.

"Oh my god, I have an amazing idea." Papyrus looked at you curiously. "Do you have any whipped cream?"

After digging through the brothers' fridge as quietly as you could, it turned out they did not have any whipped cream. However, they did have an overabundance of spaghetti, so you settled for that instead. You instructed Papyrus to put as much of it on Sans' outstretched hand as possible while you looked for something to tickle his face with. Papyrus was giddy with excitement at the thought of pranking his brother and kept forgetting to keep his voice down, but Sans slept like the dead so it didn't really matter.

You returned to the couch after finding a feather duster that you didn't think had ever been used. You'd had to clutch the tool between your teeth as you maneuvered with your crutches, but Papyrus took it from you when he finally finished making a perfectly-balanced pile of spaghetti on Sans' hand.

"Okay, do it." You instructed as you backed away, not wanting to get caught in the splash zone. Sans' sleep talking had stopped sometime during the planning of the prank, but he started back up again when Papyrus tickled his nose (or, more acurately, lack thereof). Unfortunately, his mumbling was incomprehensible, but you thought you heard him say Frisk's name once or twice.

Before you could think too much on that, you had the immense pleasure of seeing Sans slap himself hard in the face, spaghetti sauce flying in all directions.

"Whhhaaaa?!" Sans shot up, got tangled in his blankets, and fell off of the couch, his arms flailing comically. Papyrus barely managed to leap out of the way before he got rolled over, the two of you roaring with mirth as Sans touched the spaghetti on his face, confused. The confusion turned quickly to grim determination as he glared at you and Papyrus. "You'll pay for this!" He growled, but it was hard to take him seriously when he had a spaghetti noodle hanging out of his eye socket. You snorted uncontrollably, but you were past the point of being embarrassed about your laugh in front of the two brothers. Papyrus, practically crying from laughing so hard, pointed at you,

"IT WAS THEIR IDEA!" He yelled before taking off, running toward the stairs. Sans got a mischievous glint in his eye, looking like he was trying hard not to smile.

"Hey! Get back here!" Sans scooped a handful of spaghetti off of his own face and ran after his brother. You watched, doubling over with laughter as the two of them wrestled, Sans trying to get as much of the spaghetti on Papyrus as possible. You figured you were only safe because of your "injury," but being reminded of your lie only served to taint the mood for you. You looked on wistfully until the boys separated, Sans panting heavily but looking triumphant. Papyrus came to stand next to you, his arms folded dejectedly. Everything from his chest down was covered in tomato sauce; his face was spared only because of his height advantage.

"Huh," You scratched your chin and looked around at the messy room thoughtfully, "Cleaning up all of this spaghetti is gonna be im _pasta_ ble." Sans laughed. Papyrus screamed.

"NO! NOT YOU TOO!"

After the three of you cleaned up your mess (Well, more like you and Papyrus cleaned up your mess while Sans took a shower and then promptly left to do his own thing), Papyrus broke the bad news to you.

"I'm sorry, human, but I must leave you! Undyne requires assistance fixing her flooded house, and, as the Most Important Royal Person, it is my duty to help her!" He hugged you dramatically, lifting you up off of your feet. "I hope you can continue on without me for the day!" You gave Papyrus a gentle pat on the back. Sans must have talked to him last night, you supposed.

"I think I'll be okay. Have fun at Undyne's!" Papyrus reluctantly let you go, quickly snatching up the Rubik's cube and scrambling it once for you before giving you a cheery wave.

"I will! See you later!" The sound of the front door closing had a sort of finality to it. For the first time ever, you were alone in the house. You hadn't realized how quiet it could get with no one else around.

The first thing you did was solve the Rubik's cube. More than once, in fact. When Sans had first brought the toy home, you'd merely been solving it to appease Papyrus. But now, after hours of pep-talks and enthusiastic training, you were kind of starting to think maybe you _could_ enter some competitions once you got back to the surface. It was something to look forward to, anyway.

But, without Papyrus around to cheer you on, the cube lost your attention quickly. You puttered around in the kitchen for a while, debating on if you should cook something nice for dinner before dismissing the idea as being too difficult to do on crutches. Sure, you could've forgone the crutches since Papyrus and Sans weren't around, but just because they were gone didn't necessarily mean that no one was watching…

You glanced out the window nervously. You were alone, now… what if Flowey decided this was a good time to confront you? With that thought in mind, you decided locking yourself in Sans' room was a great course of action. You scooted yourself up the stairs as quick as you could, only relaxing once you had firmly shut the bedroom door and turned the lock.

A private little laugh escaped your lips as you slumped against the door. You were losing your nerve over nothing. Everything was fine, you were going to be fine. Just stop acting so damn suspicious and Flowey had no reason to turn on you.

You looked around, running a hand through your hair. You figured, while you were there, you might as well explore Sans' room. Of course, you'd been here before in the game, getting the key mostly by accident when you'd forgotten to save after Sans' speech in the last corridor. You had to say, though, the trash tornado was much more impressive in person than it was in the game. You snatched a random piece of paper out of the tornado deftly. It looked like a page from a physics textbook.

After catching and releasing a few other knick-knacks from the tornado and finding nothing interesting, you moved on to the dresser. You riffled through his clothes, recognizing most of his wardrobe as things he'd let you borrow over the weeks you'd lived with the skeletons. Just when you were beginning to think there'd be nothing interesting to find, a glint of silver at the bottom of the drawer caught your eye.

 _Right, the key._ You'd forgotten about that. Picking it up, you ran your fingers over its smooth surface contemplatively. _No one's home…_ You felt a metaphorical devil on your shoulder. The angel was suspiciously absent. _Couldn't hurt to check it out._ As you put all of the clothes back in their place neatly, you continued to justify your nosiness to yourself even though your mind was already made up. _Maybe I'll find something down there that'll help me get past the barrier._ Truthfully, you doubted that was the case, but it wasn't impossible.

Before heading out to snoop, you stopped at Papyrus' room and turned on his computer. Before today, you'd never had any reason to use it; the entertainment value of the Undernet didn't even compare to the internet you were familiar with. But, since this computer originally came from the human world, it was bound to have some features you were used to. You were no computer expert, but you recognized Windows 2000 when you saw it. Sure enough, as soon as it had finished the long process of booting up, you found the application you were looking for.

Opening up Microsoft Word, you made a makeshift table for translating Wing Dings to English characters. You figured, if you were going to spy, you might as well be thorough about it. You'd always suspected that the blueprints in the basement were written in Wing Dings, and now was the time to find out. The real pain in the ass was realizing that Papyrus didn't own a printer, and having to find a piece of paper to draw the symbols out by hand.

Armed with your self-made decoder, you made your way down the stairs and peeked out the front door hesitantly. You were more afraid of a stranger or, god forbid, Flowey, finding you going between the house and the cellar than you were of either of the brothers coming home early. But, from what you could see, the town looked dead. It helped that the skeletons lived right on the edge of Snowdin; you didn't imagine people walked over this way too often. Your heart fluttering in your chest, you crutched your way around the side of the house. You fumbled with the key for a moment before fitting it into the lock, opening the door and slipping inside undetected.

It was surprisingly warm in the basement, as though Sans was down there enough to warrant heating it. Once you limped down the stairs, you immediately set to work. You felt giddy as you sifted through a drawer full of photographs. For the first time since arriving at Sans and Papyrus' house, you felt like you were actually doing something productive. You found what you were looking for in the photo album, which was a picture showing all of the main characters of the game, posing for a photo. The picture was bright enough that it had to have been taken in the sunlight, on the surface. To you, this was confirmation that, not only did alternate timelines exist, but Sans definitely knew about them. He'd somehow kept this picture, even though it could have never happened in this timeline. A shiver ran down your back. The monsters looked so happy in that picture. Was it your fault that they weren't anymore?

It didn't escape you that this timeline you were currently in was also the very last one you'd completed in the game. Did this mean that all of your previous playthroughs had actually happened, too? You placed that thought firmly in the "I'll worry about it later" pile, but still, it made your breath come a little quicker.

Moving on from the photo album, you put your decoder to work and examined the blueprints next. You were right; they were definitely written in Wing Dings. Unfortunately, even with the decoder, you still couldn't make heads or tails of the plans. The title said it was a "Time Machine," which was unsurprising to you, but otherwise the blueprints were too complicated for you to understand.

As you were muddling your way through a hastily-scribbled note on the side of the page, you heard the telltale creak of footsteps on the old wooden stairs. Frantically, you scrambled to find a hiding place. How did someone get in here?! You hadn't heard the door open! Your stomach dropped as you realized you had no time to hide. A sickening feeling of dread filled you, and you barely had time to crumple up your decoder and stuff it in your pocket before Sans rounded the corner.

"Uhh…" Sans froze in place, staring at you, dumbfounded.

"I'm sorry! I found the key in your drawer, and I just wanted to see, I didn't think- I didn't know- I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm-" Oh god, it was over, wasn't it? The jig was up, Sans was going to know you knew, he was going to know you'd killed his brother, you'd killed him, and… You felt like you were choking.

"Hey, calm down, it's okay." Sans' soft voice broke through your internal panic. You registered a hand resting on your shoulder. "Deep breaths." You tried, but you couldn't. Were you… hyperventilating?

The self-awareness helped you come to your senses. Somehow, you found yourself on the hard, concrete floor, Sans kneeling in front of you with a concerned expression on his face. You touched your cheeks, and were surprised to find them wet.

"S-sorry." You sniffled.

"Yeah, I got that." Sans joked as he rubbed soothing circles into your shoulder. You laughed breathlessly.

"That's… never happened before." It had only been for a moment, but you couldn't believe you'd freaked out like that. You felt a little sick again as you realized why you'd panicked in the first place. "I-I shouldn't have come down here." Sans frowned,

"Probably not," He agreed, still rubbing your shoulder with his phalanges, "But I'm not mad." You looked up at him sharply,

"You're not?" Sans chuckled at your astonishment.

"Nah. Shouldn't've left the key in the drawer. You were bound to find it eventually." He shifted so that he was sitting next to you, close enough that your arms were pressed together. Still trying to catch your breath, you leaned forward so that your head was between your knees and just listened as he talked. "This is, uh, where I've been disappearing off to every day. I haven't told you or Paps about it because, well, it's not going so good. Figured there was no reason to get anyone's hopes up until I made some progress."

"Progress… on what?" You asked shyly, fully aware that you didn't deserve this information he was giving you. Why was he being so… nice? Sans scratched the back of his head nervously.

"Something to get us out of here." He shifted around, weighing his options. "Eh, don't worry about it. It's not gonna work, anyway."

"If you didn't think it'd work, you wouldn't be spending so much time down here." You sat up straight and nudged his shoulder affectionately, glancing over at the sheet-covered machine to your left. "But you don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I… uh… shouldn't have snooped, anyway." You blushed, your heart still racing from residual anxiety. Sans stood up and offered you a hand.

"C'mon, let's get back in the house." You grabbed your fallen crutches and allowed him to pull you to your feet. "I wish you hadn't gone outside… that was kind of stupid."

"It was a little, wasn't it?" You sighed when you got to the stairs. There were entirely too many stairs in this place. "Guess I'm going a little stir crazy."

"Well, how'd you like to go out tomorrow night?" You stopped at last step, looking at Sans incredulously. He wasn't looking at you, and his cheeks were flushed blue.

"Are you… asking me out?" You still felt a little unreal from that freak out, and couldn't be sure you were reading the situation right.

"Uh, crap, this is a bad time, isn't it? Sorry, forget I said anything." He shuffled his feet. His nervousness was... kind of adorable.

"I'd love to!" You blurted out. You couldn't understand what Sans saw in you, especially in this moment, but why not? This day was already crazy, might as well make it crazier.

"Okay! How does eight o'clock sound?"

"Hmm, I dunno... I'll have to check my calendar." You joked, but Sans was uncharacteristically slow on the uptake. He looked crestfallen for a half-second before grinning.

"Right, well, I'll… I look forward to it." With that settled, he opened the door for you, checking to make sure there was no one around before leading you out into the cold. In all of that excitement, you'd forgotten to give Sans his key back. By the time you realized your mistake, you decided to just keep it. You never knew when you might need access to a half-finished time machine, after all.


	10. Bloom

The next day was incredibly hectic. Sans must have told Papyrus about the date you two were planning to go on that night, because the taller skeleton was determined to prepare you for it in every way he knew how.

"No! You can't wear that! You have to wear something special to show you care!" Papyrus exclaimed, exasperated, after you suggested meekly that you'd like to just wear the clothes you were already in. "Besides, those are Sans' clothes! You can't wear Sans' clothes on a date with Sans!" He threw his dating manual in the air dramatically, earning a snicker from you. You didn't see what the big deal was; you highly doubted Sans was going to dress up for the date, since you'd already seen his entire wardrobe and knew with certainty that he didn't own anything fancier than a t-shirt with a cartoon bowtie printed on it. It would just look silly if you dressed up and Sans didn't.

All of the preparations Papyrus was putting you through made you much more nervous than you would have been otherwise. Last night you'd been cool as a cucumber, figuring that the date wasn't such a big deal since you and Sans already knew each other pretty well. Hell, this wasn't even really your first date with him, if you counted that trip to Waterfall. But, after being forced to memorize a long list of conversation starters in Papyrus' damned dating manual, you felt a little twinge of anxiety at the thought of going out with Sans. Neither of you were very extroverted… what if you ran out of things to say? Even after putting on your best pouty face over breakfast, Sans had refused to tell you where he was taking you later that night. What if he'd planned something that you couldn't do because of your disability? Like… well, you couldn't think of anything, but you were sure worried about it, anyway. What if, in your nervous state, you slipped up and told him something you shouldn't have?

Thinking about that particular concern again brought a knot of fear to your stomach. Was it wrong to have said yes to the date, knowing what you did now? If Sans knew the part you'd played in the alternate timelines… well, he certainly wouldn't have asked you out. _I don't know for sure that it was my fault,_ You rationalized, _After all, what about the thousands of other people who played the game? Did their playthroughs actually happen, too?_ It helped you to think that you weren't the only one at fault. There wasn't anything special about you or your copy of the game, right? The amount of suffering you'd caused down here was only a drop in the bucket compared to the collective sins of everyone who'd played Undertale. The thought calmed you down and made you feel less guilty, but still, something about that reasoning nagged at you.

You were rescued from your own thoughts by something soft hitting you in the face. You grabbed it and held it out at arm's length.

"A dress?" You peeked around the garment at Papyrus, who was still digging in his closet while you sat on his bed.

"Yes! Dresses are very fancy and special… perfect date material!" You blushed,

"Uh, I dunno, Papyrus… dresses are… not really my style. You get what I'm sayin? Come to think of it, why do you even own a dress in the first place?" Papyrus tossed a flowery hat aside before turning back around to speak with you with his hands on his hips.

"Because! Mettaton wears dresses all the time, so I thought I should get one! But I've never had a special enough occasion to wear it. Well, I did, but I had different special clothes to wear for that." You thought you knew what that special occasion was, and it took a lot of effort not to smile at the memory. "Anyway, anyone can wear a dress! I bet you'd look great in it. Just try?" You held up the dress again, examining it. You felt uneasy about it, but, just for Papyrus, you figured you'd try.

"Okay, turn around so I can try it on. And don't peek!" After solemnly swearing not to peek, Papyrus turned his back to you. As quick as you could (and cheating a little by bearing some weight on your "broken" foot), you changed out of your own clothes and into the beige dress. It was probably meant to be mid-thigh-length, but on you it came down to your knees. Otherwise, it was pretty modest.

"Hey, do you have a belt?" After a moment of digging (blindly, since he was still covering his eyes), Papyrus tossed you one over his shoulder, which you caught one-handed. You slipped the belt on your waist, pleased with the combination. "There, now it's a shirt dress. Is that special enough?" Papyrus turned and cackled loudly after looking you up and down, clapping his hands together.

"Excellent! You look almost as good in a dress as I do!"

The rest of the afternoon passed in a similar manner, with you growing steadily more nervous as time wore on. By the time dinner came around, you were stress-eating some potato chips (or, popato chisps, if the package was to be believed) until Papyrus came to swat them out of your hands.

"Hey! Sans told me not to let you eat before the date!" You glared at Papyrus suspiciously.

"So there's food involved… does that mean you know where he's taking me?" You narrowed your eyes. You would have tapped your foot if you'd had more than one to stand on.

"N-no…" Papyrus, bless his heart, was a terrible liar.

"Paps, you gotta tell me." You pleaded and clutched at his scarf with one hand, popato chisps lying forgotten on the kitchen floor. "Are we not best friends?" You were aware that you were playing dirty, but you just had to know in order to mentally prepare yourself. Papyrus looked to be waging an internal battle with himself before gently but firmly prying your hand off of him.

"No, I can't tell! Sans actually worked hard for once in his life to prepare this, I won't ruin the surprise!" Your eyebrows shot up in shock.

"So there was _preparation_ involved?!" Frustrated with himself, Papyrus clapped a hand over his own mouth. It would've been funny if you hadn't been so worried about potentially ruining this increasingly elaborate date with your general awkwardness.

"No! I didn't say anything!" Right on cue, the front door opened. You had a mini-heart-attack, remembering what had happened only two days prior, but it was just Sans this time. Seeing an out, Papyrus bounded away from you. "Sans! They're trying to get me to divulge your secrets!"

A protest died on your lips as soon as you got a good look at Sans. He looked… really nice. In place of his usual shorts, hoodie, and slippers combo, he was wearing a crisp, button down shirt and black dress pants. He even had black shoes and a tie to go with it. Of course, half of the shirt was untucked and the tie was a little loose, but the casual sloppiness suited him. It took you a moment to realize you were staring and, even more embarrassingly, you were being stared at, too. Your ears started to burn as soon as you realized. Already, you regretted giving in to Papyrus and wearing the dress. Maybe you wouldn't have suddenly turned into this shy, blushing wreck if you'd been in something more familiar.

Sans was the first to break the silence. "Heh, you look… nice." He made an aborted motion as if to stuff his hands in his coat pockets, then realized he wasn't wearing a coat and instead dropped his arms to let them hang awkwardly at his sides.

"You too!" Maybe the dress idea wasn't so bad, after all. From behind his brother, Papyrus gave you a thumbs-up. Smug bastard.

"It's kinda early, but I thought maybe we could go… if you want to."

"Oh! Sure, I'm ready." You crutched over to him, wondering if he would've offered you his hand if both of your own hadn't already been occupied.

"You two have fun! I'll wait for you to get back." Papyrus waved at you both. You nodded, and Sans gave a little wave in return.

"Thanks Paps." With that, Sans opened the front door for you, leading you out into the cold. As soon as the door shut, he rushed to your side, helping you down the front steps.

"So, ah, how far away is wherever we're going?" You asked, already feeling more nervous than you'd ever felt on a date before. You weren't dressed for the weather, and crutches didn't do so well in the snow, so you were already worried about how you were going to get to this mysterious place.

"Not far. Well, it's pretty far, but there's a shortcut just down this road." Sans talked as his head whipped around, probably keeping an eye out for any onlookers. It was fairly late, though, and you were walking away from the town, so you weren't as worried. You followed Sans past the igloo, past his shed, and then…

The transition was seamless, just like when you'd taken a shortcut to Waterfall. One moment you were struggling to maneuver your crutches through the snow, and the next your wet shoe was squeaking on a red and blue checkered carpet. When you looked up, you were surprised to be met with the sight of a fancy restaurant. It was dimly lit, with the only light coming from the candles on the tables. Speaking of the tables, they were all rearranged to form a corridor of sorts, leading to a single table in the center of the room. The place was completely empty, save for the two of you.

"Wow, is this-" You barely caught yourself before saying the name of the place you shouldn't have recognized. "Where are we?"

"It's a restaurant in Hotland," Sans spoke as he lead you to the center table. "I, ah, rented it out so no one would see us."

" _You rented an entire restaurant?!"_ Mouth agape, you barely remembered to sit down when Sans pulled out a chair for you. That can't have been cheap… how much had this date cost him?!

"Heh, yeah…" He laughed timidly, "Well, not the entire thing. It didn't come with tablecloths, or candles, or silverware, or food, so I had to get all that separately." Jeez, had he been working on this all day? You folded your hands in your lap, feeling like you'd gotten in way over your head.

"Wow, thank you, but... you didn't have to go to all that trouble." You muttered, feeling like your face was on fire.

"I wanted to." He said, firmly, like there was nothing else he'd rather spend his time and money on. "Oh!" Sans snapped his fingers, and, briefly, you wondered how that was possible. "Speaking of food, I'll go get it." He rushed off to a back room, leaving you alone in the fancy restaurant.

As soon as he was gone, you let out a huge breath you hadn't realized you'd been holding. God, you were such an asshole. You'd thought this was just going to be a silly, one-and-done, friend-date, but apparently Sans liked you a lot more than you'd realized. Had you been leading him on? You weren't sure, but, if you hadn't been before, you certainly were now. Could you really keep this dating thing up, knowing what you'd done to the guy?

What disturbed you more than anything was the realization that yes, you could. You felt bad that you'd killed Sans and his brother in a video game but, deep down, you didn't feel like you were really at fault. Had you known your actions in the game would have real-world consequences, you wouldn't have done any of the horrible things you did. _Besides,_ You reminded yourself for the second time that day, _I might not have been the only one. Other people did the same things as me. I was just unlucky enough to fall down here and see the result of our collective mistakes._ So, really, was it so wrong of you to enjoy yourself while you were here? In fact, maybe this date could end up being the way you made it up to Sans…

The excuse sounded weak, even in your head.

Before you could muddle through your complex feelings, Sans returned balancing two plates and two cups.

"Sorry, it's not much. I… don't really know how to cook." On each of your plates was a burger and a heaping pile of fries. The meal looked suspiciously like it had come straight from Grillby's. You couldn't help it; you burst out laughing. Sans grimaced and blushed bright blue.

"No, no! It's okay, I like it, really! I was just surprised." Great. Not only had you inadvertently ruined the guy's life, but now you'd made him feel bad. You were really on a role, weren't you?

"Well, I was in a bit of a _pickle_ when I found out the restaurant wouldn't serve us food." The pun sounded half-hearted, but you forced a laugh anyway.

After that, the date was… well, the words "absolute disaster" came to mind. Perhaps that description was a little too melodramatic; you supposed the food was good, despite it being reheated burgers and fries, and neither of you did anything to further embarrass yourselves. That was kind of the problem, though. Neither of you did anything, period. Throughout the meal, you found yourself digging desperately through your mental checklist of conversation starters that Papyrus had supplied you with, but the small talk quickly fizzled and died a sad, cold death. Your previous fear of running out of things to say quickly became a reality, and there wasn't even any background music or chatter from other diners to fill the void of silence.

It was so bad that you were beginning to rethink your earlier assessment of the situation. You'd thought that Sans taking you to a fancy restaurant meant that he liked you a lot more than you'd anticipated, but maybe it was just the opposite. Maybe this was some kind of pity-date. That sort of thing happened to disabled people often enough that it was a real concern in your mind. And, considering the circumstances in which he'd asked you out… well, maybe he was just humoring you. You kind of wanted to bring up the fact that you'd been in a steady relationship before, just to see if he was surprised by it, but finding a way to casually mention an ex during a date was no simple task, so you quickly dropped the idea.

Both of you ate your meals quickly but, just as you were about to finish your last few fries, Sans groaned and buried his head in his hands, his elbows resting on either side of his plate.

"Shit, I'm sorry, this was too much, wasn't it?" The curse startled you for a moment; you didn't think you'd ever heard Sans swear before.

"No…" You protested weakly, but, truthfully, Sans was right. You didn't know what you'd been expecting, but it hadn't been this. Wistfully, you wished the two of you could just go back in time and relive that trip to Waterfall. You'd felt so at ease with him there, what had changed?

"Truth is, I haven't, uh, done this a lot… and by 'this' I mean dating, and by 'a lot' I mean ever." _That_ surprised you. Sure, you figured Sans didn't get out too much, but never? "You didn't ask for this, and I shouldn't have even asked you out to begin with. I don't want you to feel pressured to like me just because you think you're obligated to, or-"

"Woah, wait… what?!" Where had that come from? Sans looked at you quizzically.

"Well, I just don't want you to think that you owe me. I'm not going to kick you out of the house or anything if you don't want to deal with _this_." He gestured to himself in a funny, yet self-deprecating way. You shook your head wildly.

"No, no! I'm not here just because I'm in your debt… even though I am. I like you… really." As you said it, you realized it was true. You'd spent the whole date - no, the whole _day_ \- trying to analyze how Sans felt about you, but you hadn't even given a second thought to how you felt about Sans. Even though the night wasn't going so well, you still liked him. You'd always liked him, even when he'd just been a fictional character to you. The realization brought a smile to your face. "Actually… it sounds kind of silly now, but I was just thinking about how you were probably only doing this because you felt bad for me." You barked a nervous laugh, rubbing the back of your neck self-consciously. Sans reeled,

"What?! Why would you think that?" You shrugged helplessly,

"I dunno! That's just how people feel about me, generally." Sans looked confused for a moment but, once he caught on, he furrowed his brow and crossed his arms.

"Well, that's not how _I_ feel." He muttered, almost petulantly. You waited for him to go on and, eventually, he did, "I didn't even really think about it, to be honest. You're different from other humans, I know that. But it just… doesn't matter to me. It doesn't matter to anybody, down here. Appearances mean nothing to monsters, it's what's inside - in your soul - that we care about." You didn't know what to say to that. Sans poked a fry on his plate, still deep in thought, "Remember what I said, that first day we met? How I felt like I already knew you? Well, I still feel that way. You're familiar, on a soul-deep level. It feels… nice. I've never felt like that before." You _really_ didn't know what to say to that. If he knew why you felt so familiar- "If you don't feel the same way, I get it. I won't be disappointed if you don't want to do this." Every cell in your body screamed in protest.

"I do feel that way! I'm just not very good at expressing it, I guess." You grabbed your own arm and broke Sans' gaze, trying to figure out how to phrase your thoughts. "I used to be dating someone for a long time, actually, and, uh, it was going well. We were talking about getting engaged, and everything. But they broke up with me a couple years back. I guess I was too 'emotionally distant,' as they put it." Turned out you found a way to work in your ex, after all. You still ached at the loss as though it were fresh. The breakup had been ugly and you didn't like to think about it, so you hoped Sans appreciated that you told him the story. "So, if you're not okay with dealing with _this_ ," You gestured to all of yourself, like what Sans had done earlier, "You should probably get out now." To your surprise, Sans' face split into a wide grin.

"Not a chance." You smiled back at him, feeling like you'd finally done something right. "So, does this mean this is a thing now?" Sans pointed between the two of you. Feeling daring, you reached across the table and grabbed his hand.

"Yeah, it's a thing." Your date blushed blue, gently swiping a boney thumb across the back of your hand. You stayed like that for a moment, the both of you acting like kids in middle school to whom holding hands was a new and exciting endeavor. Suddenly, Sans let go of you and jumped up out of his seat.

"Oh! I almost forgot! I made a dessert, hang on a sec." You sat there, smiling as if in a daze, while Sans hurried off to get the food. If you ignored the guilt gnawing at the back of your mind, then everything was going great. Sans returned after a couple of minutes, carrying two more plates.

"Hope you don't have any allergies… I kind of forgot to ask, woops." He placed a slice of pie in front of you. It looked kind of like pumpkin pie, except it smelled more like-

"Got the recipe from a friend awhile back. Do you like cinnamon butterscotch?" A strong, uncontrollable shiver ran down your spine. You could've sworn you felt that black mass from your nightmare on your shoulder again. You resisted the urge to turn around and look. With a great effort, you forced a smile.

"Yeah. I love it."


	11. No Sir, No Sir

_There is a child standing in front of you._

 _You recognize the child. Vaguely, from another dream, but also from another life._

" _Frisk." The name feels like poison on your lips. The child laughs, and laughs, and laughs._

" _No! Don't you remember me, partner?" They smile big and hold up their knife, tapping it on their own temple smugly._

" _Chara." The name feels more right. You'd grown so used to the thing weighing on your back that you didn't even notice it until it starts wriggling excitedly at the sound of that name. Suddenly, you have a vision. A flash of something shining in the trees. Standing on the edge of a precipice. Being pushed. Falling. "You pushed me… why?" You feel betrayed. Chara's face scrunches up._

" _You're the only one who can ruin this. You have a tendency to tamper with fate, which was useful, for a while. But I like things the way they are now. And I can't simply kill you, because - I'll be honest with you, since we're old friends - I don't know how you did it. The saves. The resets. Killing you might mess it up. I had to push you," They spread their arms wide, "But now…! You're still alive, but you can never leave! And now, I can enact my revenge on humanity in peace. It's perfect, don't you think?" Boiling with anger, you take a step forward._

" _I'll find a way out! I'll reset it all again!" Chara is largely unfazed, even though you tower over them threateningly._

" _You can try. In fact, I look forward to it. But remember, there are two keys," They giggle, barely able to contain their mirth, "And you don't have either of them!" The thing on your back gurgles and moans, demanding your attention. You cover your ears, straining to block it out. Still laughing at your misery, the child reaches forward and pushes you back. They are stronger than they look, and you trip and stumble, falling… falling… falling…_

You wake up.


	12. Ashes, Ashes

The following week was one of the best of your life. It was certainly the best you'd had since falling into the Underground. Despite the constant guilt weighing on your mind, your new relationship with Sans was exciting and new. You'd worried about, well, certain expectations he might've had of you, but Sans seemed happy to just hold hands every now and again and, on one memorable occasion, cuddle on the couch. He'd been a perfect gentleman after your first date, ending the outing by walking you to your room (technically, his room) and bidding you a goodnight.

Those memories comforted you now, as you sat in bed, heart racing from your latest nightmare. The dream had been so visceral; unlike any you could ever remember having before. So tangible, in fact, that you weren't sure if it had been real or imagined. The thought of the real Chara haunting you in your dreams was… chilling. Every other character in Undertale had been real so far; you didn't know why you had never thought of where Chara and Frisk might've ended up. Something _had_ pushed you into the Underground… could it have really been one of them?

Without warning, your bedroom door burst open.

"Oh good, I see you are already up!" Papyrus exclaimed, seemingly oblivious to your distress. "Come downstairs! You must join us… Sans is making pancakes!" He said it like it was the most shocking thing he'd ever witnessed, which, come to think of it, it might've been. Since when did Sans ever make breakfast?

It didn't escape you that he'd been in an exceptionally good mood all week. Which, by extension, made Papyrus even happier than usual. You hadn't realized how drained Sans usually looked until he didn't anymore. You weren't naive; you didn't think your new relationship with him could cure all of his problems. He was still gone for most of the day, presumably working on his time machine downstairs, and looked tired and frustrated when he returned. But he was gone for increasingly shorter increments of time, and even came upstairs for lunch a couple times. It was better, all in all, which was bittersweet for you.

You tried to leave your negative thoughts behind as you made your way downstairs, peeking into the kitchen where Papyrus was hovering over his brother's shoulder.

"SANS! That's not a star! That's a blob!" You could see from your position that Sans was trying to make shapes with the pancake batter. The square and circle had turned out fine, but the triangle looked a little lumpy and the "star" he was supposedly working on was just sad. He shrugged,

"What can I say, bro? This star is _out of this world_ " Papyrus face-palmed himself hard enough that you winced a little. Sans' smile only grew, "Aw c'mon, sa _turn_ that frown upside down." Sans finally noticed you when you snorted at his joke.

"Hey, kid, do I get a good morning kiss, or do you need some personal _space_?" You were surprised that he'd asked, since you'd never kissed before. You also thought it was a little quirky that he still called you "kid" even though you were dating, but you went over and gave him a peck on the top of his skull anyway. He laughed nervously, as though he hadn't expected you to actually do it. You grinned, delighted to have flustered him.

"That star pancake's looking kinda sad. The next time you make one, you should really _planet_ better." You chortled at your own joke, and Sans joined in. He held out a plate of finished pancakes to you,

"That pun was pretty bad, consider these pancakes your _constellation_ prize." You giggled uncontrollably. Papyrus swooped in and took the plate of finished pancakes from Sans.

"Human, quit encouraging him! This is why we have a _plutonic_ relationship! Nyheh heh heh!" Papyrus cackled and skipped out of the room, leaving you gasping for air. Whenever Papyrus stooped low enough to make a bad joke, you knew it was going to be a good day.

The rest of the morning passed in a pleasant blur of puns and oddly shaped pancakes. Sans lingered for longer than normal, conveniently choosing to announce his departure right as everyone finished eating and the dishes needed to be cleaned. Before he left, he stood on the tips of his toes and bumped his face into your cheek. It took you a moment to realize that was his approximation of a kiss.

"Sorry, uh, no lips, so…" He shrugged, but you smiled at him, dispelling his brief anxiety. You'd never considered the logistics of getting a kiss from a skeleton before, but you found that you didn't mind the lack of certain necessary parts. It was more the thought that counted, in the end.

"That works!" You placed your own kiss on his temple, "Have a good day." Sans waved lazily at you and Papyrus before heading out the door, leaving you alone with his brother.

"Wowie! That date must have gone really well! I was getting a little worried… you two weren't doing the normal relationship building activities mentioned in the manual, but you seem to have caught on now. And without my help, even!" You looked away from Papyrus, abashed. You'd just assumed that Sans didn't want to do too much of that couple-y stuff, especially in front of his brother, and you wouldn't have blamed him. After all, you weren't sure the two of you were even dating, really. Yeah, you'd gone on one "date," and you lived together, which was weird… but he didn't seem bothered by any of the strangeness, so maybe you were just overthinking things.

"So… hmm… I don't know how to break this to you, human," Papyrus interrupted your erratic thoughts, "But I have nothing planned for us to do today." He scratched his chin, deep in thought. You were shocked; Papyrus always had something he wanted to do, you'd never been in a position where you had to think of some way to fill the day when he was around. The two of you sat in silence while you each tried to think of something. When it became clear that neither of you were going to have any epiphanies, you grabbed the remote and sat on the couch, patting the seat next to you as you flicked on the TV.

"Pop a squat, we can channel surf." Papyrus hopped onto the cushion next to you, gladly. After spending an absurd amount of time bickering light-heartedly over the five channels that existed in the Underground, the TV ended up staying on some Mettaton show. Papyrus watched it, enraptured, while you lounged on the other side of the couch, reading one of Sans' physics books. It was slow going, since it often took a few read-throughs of a chapter before you understood it, but you were able to keep up for the most part. It was more entertaining than watching Mettaton's cringe-worthy performances, at least.

The peaceful atmosphere was ruined when, about an hour into relaxing, the front doorknob began jiggling.

Both of you froze, staring at it, transfixed. Eventually, whoever was on the other side realized they weren't going to be able to just walk right in, and started knocking.

That snapped you both out of your reverie. You stood and grabbed your crutches, hastily making your way to the bathroom.

"PAPYRUS! I know you're in there! I can hear the TV!" It was Undyne. Your heart sunk.

"J-just a minute!" Papyrus ushered you into the bathroom, even though you didn't really need his help. He shut the door behind you a little too loudly, and you cringed. You reached for the door handle to lock it, but stopped when you saw that it wasn't fitted with a lock. Why the hell would Sans have a lock on his bedroom door, but not the bathroom?!

You took a deep breath, trying hard to calm yourself as you listened to Papyrus opening the door for Undyne. You would just have to hope she wouldn't need to use the bathroom, which wasn't actually all that unlikely. After all, there was only a shower in here, why would she want to use that?

"Jeez, did you punks change the locks? My key doesn't work anymore!" You thought Undyne sounded a little hurt. Beneath your mild panic, you felt bad for her. You had kind of stolen away her friend, hadn't you?

"N-no!" Papyrus lied through his teeth, "Maybe your key is broken?" Undyne snorted.

"Whatever. Anyway, I'm here because you didn't show up for our lesson. Did you forget?" You bit back a groan. No wonder Papyrus hadn't planned anything for today… he was supposed to be cooking with Undyne. It wasn't like him to forget something like that; you wondered why he had. Undyne, for her part, sounded uncharacteristically tired. You felt the tense atmosphere even from the bathroom.

"Oh! Shoot!" There was a loud clacking sound. You thought Papyrus might have face-palmed himself again; an unfortunate habit that he'd picked up from you. Unfortunate because bone-on-bone was a lot louder and more obnoxious than a fleshy hand hitting a fleshy face. "I'm sorry! Come, we must rectify this mistake immediately! To your house!" You breathed a sigh of relief. Over the past week, Papyrus had helped Undyne fix up her place. Now she would have no excuse to linger here-

"Nah, let's just do it here! I already walked all the way over here, and you have a bigger kitchen, anyway." With a great effort, you resisted the urge to face-palm yourself. You really needed to break that habit.

"O-oh. Uh…" You heard heavy footsteps coming towards you, then passing you by. A shiver ran down your spine.

"What's the matter? Scared I'm gonna flood _your_ house, too?!" Undyne's tone was just aggressive enough that you weren't sure if she was joking or not. The softer footsteps of Papyrus passed by you soon after.

"No!" _God, Papyrus, loosen up_ , You thought desperately. You hated that your continued existence depended on Papyrus' ability to lie. Luckily, Undyne didn't seem too suspicious. Or at least, you didn't think so by the way she was banging around in the kitchen.

As Undyne asserted herself in the brothers' house, you got into a more comfortable position by lowering yourself to the floor as quietly as you could manage. You sat next to the door, listening to the stunted banter between Papyrus and Undyne and mentally wincing whenever Papyrus said something awkward. Eventually, the skeleton seemed to loosen up, and the noises coming from the kitchen ramped up in volume.

"No, Papyrus! We need water first! Don't you remember from the _last_ time my house burnt down?"

"I thought that was because you used too much fire magic!"

"Well, that too!" You rested your head on your knees, half-wishing you could've been in on the fun they were having instead of hiding out in the bathroom. "Ugh, why is your sink so high?!"

"So I can fit more bones under it!"

"Where's the ladder?"

"Um…" You and Papyrus had broken the ladder a few days ago while trying to incorporate it into a blanket fort. "In the garbage pile?" Undyne yelled wordlessly in frustration.

"Let me stand on your shoulders, then!" After a few minutes of loud fumbling and yelps of pain, it was clear that using Papyrus as a ladder wasn't working.

"Oh my god! I'll just get water from the shower!"

"UNDYNE, WAIT-" There was no time to react before the bathroom door flew open. You froze, your eyes slowly traveling up to the face of the monster towering over you. A small voice in the back of your mind pointed out that you had never actually seen Undyne's face before then, and she certainly looked intimidating. The sharp, pointed teeth, fins, and flattened nose were disconcerting on an otherwise humanoid appearance. Her eyes were open wide in shock, and the two of you simply stared at each other for a long moment.

Undyne broke the silence violently by grabbing the front of your borrowed hoodie and yanking you to your feet. You yelled and clawed at her scaly hand instinctively. The crutches, which had been sitting on your lap, clattered the the ground noisily.

"What. The. HELL." She growled in your face, her breath hot and smelling like fish. You trembled, your heart racing out of your chest. You were pulled out of the bathroom by force, coming into view of Papyrus. You could hear his bones as they rattled; you weren't the only one shaking with fear. Undyne tore her eyes away from you to glare at Papyrus accusingly.

"Ah, y-you see, th-that's just… um…"

"HAVE YOU BEEN HIDING A HUMAN?!" Undyne shook you roughly, still not looking at you. At the angle she was holding you, you had to stand on your toes so as not to get choked by your own clothes. You tried to pry her fingers off of you, but they were as strong as steel. Your breath came quickly and your mind felt strangely blank.

"H-humans aren't all bad! In fact, this one-"

"I DON'T CARE WHAT THE HUMAN'S DONE!" Undyne roared, "They're the enemy of everyone's hopes and dreams! With seven human souls, we could shatter the barrier! What were you thinking, hiding this thing away!? This… it's traitorous!" Suddenly, you had an idea. While the two of them were arguing, you abandoned your attempts to free yourself from Undyne's grasp and instead began to shift around as discretely as possible.

"But this human is my friend!" You pulled your arms into your hoodie. Almost...

" _I'M_ YOUR FRIEND!" You slipped out of your shirt, dropping to the ground heavily. Undyne turned toward you sharply, her hair whipping around. "HEY!" She shouted, reaching for you again. You scrambled backwards on the floor, away from her. "GET BACK HERE, BRAT!" Just as she lunged for your injured ankle, a bone flew out of nowhere and knocked her arm away.

You didn't stop to think about it; you just turned, got to your feet, and ran. You could hear a struggle behind you as you burst out the front door, flying down the steps two at a time. The shouts, grunts, and thuds grew more distant as you ran away from Snowdin, mind racing even faster than your feet. Papyrus was buying you time, but you had nowhere to go. You could barely even run; the fastest you'd ever been able to manage was a brisk jog and already, your joints were screaming at you to stop. You tripped and stumbled as you ran through the blinding snow, your left leg weak from disuse.

It wasn't long before you had to slow down. Your lungs burned from the effort of jogging and the growing pain in your legs was warning you to stop before you collapsed. You were forced to slow to a brisk walk, hugging your bare arms and glancing behind you to make sure Undyne wasn't on your heels. It was useless, though, since you couldn't see two feet in front of you with the thick snowfall. Briefly, you considered using the blizzard to your advantage, waiting it out in the storm so that Undyne wouldn't see you. But you quickly dismissed that idea; after abandoning your hoodie, you were dressed in only a tank top and sweats and would quickly freeze if you didn't keep moving.

You pushed onward, soon reaching an eerily quiet tunnel shielded from the snow. _Waterfall_ , your mind supplied, and you limped in gratefully. Your uneven footsteps echoed loudly in the cavern, their rhythm slowing as you grew more and more tired. You strained your ears to hear if anyone was following you, but you sensed nothing aside from your own ragged breathing. You continued on numbly, gazing at Sans' sentry station longingly as you passed. That gave you an idea; perhaps you should walk until you reached the room Sans had taken you to weeks earlier. You already knew he had a shortcut there, plus it would likely be one of the first places he'd check. The probability of him finding you there before Undyne did was high.

Before that, though, you had to rest. You traced the path you would have to take in your mind and decided that it was much too far for you to travel without your cane, especially what with how winded you were already after running that short distance. You'd have to take a break somewhere, and you'd rather not just collapse in any old place out in the open. As you trudged through knee-deep water, avoiding the falling rocks, you decided you'd stop to rest in the long grass that you knew was coming up soon. It would offer some protection in case Undyne came your way.

As soon as you reached the grass, you crawled into it, feeling safer surrounded by the thick vegetation. You sat down, using the gem-studded wall to prop yourself up. God, this was such a mess. What were you going to do now? Sure, you had a plan to get found by Sans, but what then? The jig was up; Undyne knew you were here. She would never stop hunting you. You couldn't live with the skeleton brothers anymore, there was just no way. And what about Papyrus? He'd been defending you… would Undyne hurt him? Your stomach rolled at the thought. You didn't think she'd do something like that, but she seemed really determined…

Then, as if your day couldn't have gotten any worse, you heard a soft rustling sound to your right. You crouched on your sore legs, ready to spring up and start running again if need be. It was suffocatingly quiet for a moment, and you wondered if you'd imagined the noise.

"You're not Chara." A child-like voice whispered, and you only had a half-second to feel horrible, gut-wrenching dread before a vine shot out from the grass and grabbed your wrist.

 _God, not now…_ You thought desperately as you threw yourself backwards, putting all of your weight into escaping. You were fully prepared to rip off your own arm to avoid this confrontation, but you didn't get the chance. Another, thicker vine snapped around your waist, pinning both of your arms to your sides. When Flowey popped out of the grass in front of you, he wasn't smiling.

"You know, I've been doubting it for a while… but, every now and then, you'd do something just like them." His voice was sickly sweet. You felt nauseous as he looked you over, his gaze lingering on your formerly injured foot. "But now, I know you were lying to me. You ran all the way here; you're not hurt at all!" The vines squeezed you tighter, and you wheezed. "Besides, why would Chara pick such a defective body? It makes no sense." You had no rebuttal to anything he was saying. Even if there was some way to convince him otherwise, you were completely paralyzed with fear. You were in no state to be convincing anyone of anything. Flowey nodded to himself, as though your silence confirmed it for him.

"Right. But then, I just have one question…" His hold on you grew impossibly tighter. You kicked out helplessly, flailing the only limbs you still had control over. The flower's face contorted in anger.

" _HOW DID YOU KNOW ABOUT ME AND MY SIBLING?"_

You opened your mouth, but realized you had nothing to say. How could you even _begin_ to explain? The truth would've sounded ridiculous, and you had no more lies to give. Everything was falling apart around you, and you felt helpless to prevent it.

When you didn't answer, a thorny vine whipped out from nowhere and slapped you across the face. You yelped, more out of shock than pain. It didn't change anything, though; there was still nothing to tell.

"Whatever. It doesn't matter. Let's just end this." Warm blood trickled down from your cheek. A cruel look took over the flower's face as he made a beckoning motion with his leaf. You felt a strange, tugging feeling in your chest and heard something click three times. But… nothing happened. The sensation was weird, like Flowey was pulling in invisible string attached to your sternum, but not painful or even necessarily unpleasant. Flowey frowned and beckoned again, more forcefully this time. The three clicks repeated and the invisible string tightened, but still nothing. Flowey looked even more confused than you, before realization dawned on his face. He laughed and laughed, hysterical, while you were still lost. He laughed so hard that his eyes teared up, and he reached up with a leaf to wipe them before they fell.

"Oh, wow! What a coincidence, you're just like me!" You didn't understand. It must've shown on your face, because Flowey leaned forward and whispered,

 _"Where did you misplace your soul, little monarch?"_


	13. We All Fall Down

" _Where did you misplace your soul, little monarch?"_

Your mind spun. What…?

Before you even had a chance to think, a bone flew out of nowhere and sliced the vine that was holding your waist. Flowey grunted in pain, and you dropped to your feet. You tried to run away, but there was still a thorny appendage wrapped securely around your wrist.

"Oh, great. It's _you_ again." The flower sneered, and you abandoned your attempts to get away and looked up. Through the tall grass, you could barely make out a familiar shape.

"Sorry, don't recall ever meeting you, pal." Your heart leapt. Sans was here! As he drew nearer, you saw that he had an arsenal of bones hovering behind him. His white pupils flickered briefly to you, but otherwise he kept his attention on Flowey. "I'd suggest stepping away from the human. I'll take care of them." Flowey laughed,

"Oh, please! Drop the act, I know you've been buddy-buddy with them this whole time. Although…" His twisted smile turned to you, "I wonder if he knows about your missing soul?" You started struggling against the vine around your wrist again, mostly so you'd have an excuse not to meet Sans' hurt, accusing look. "He doesn't! Hehehe! How scandalous! I bet-"

Before Flowey could finish his thought, a barrage of bones flew his way. He dodged the first attack, nimbly pulling you with him in the process. You barely managed to stay on your feet as he yanked you in front of him, using you as a human shield. His vine snaked up your arm, holding you more securely. You flashed a fearful look at Sans, wondering wildly if he even cared that you might get hit. Apparently, he did, because the attacks ceased immediately.

"Let them go." Sans' commanded, his voice low. He avoided looking at you, instead staring at a spot just to your left. Suddenly, you had an idea.

"I don't think so! I'm not interested in fighting you. I know I'll lose." As Flowey monologued, you made a frantic motion with your free hand. The pinpricks of light in Sans' eyes flickered to you. "Besides, I'd rather keep this one for myself." You mouthed the word, _Blaster_ , then held up three fingers in front of your leg, where Flowey couldn't see them. When you were sure Sans was watching, you retracted a finger, beginning the countdown. His nod was almost imperceptible and his expression... unreadable. "I have a lot of questions for them, for example-" As soon as the countdown reached zero, you threw yourself to the ground, dodging to the right as far as you could with your arm ensnared. At the same time, Sans summoned a giant skull. You barely had time to stare in awe at it before it exploded, sending a jet of light and energy straight at the now-exposed Flowey.

The noise was deafening. The roar of the blaster was like that of a jet plane, and right next to your ear. And it burned, too! You felt the raw energy of it scorching the hairs on your arm. As soon as you could, you scrambled backward. Judging by the soreness of your throat after, you thought you might've screamed. If so, the eardrum-piercing sound of the blast drowned it out.

It was over quickly. As soon as the noise died down, the skull disappeared too. All that remained was a long line of burnt grass, a severed vine still wrapped painfully around your arm, and a high-pitched ringing in your ears. Flowey, too, was nowhere to be seen.

"Did you get him?" You looked over at Sans, who was still staring at the spot where Flowey used to be. Shakily, you pushed yourself to your feet, wondering if Sans had ignored you or if his ears were still ringing too much from the blast to have heard you. You took a wobbly step forward, "Sans, I asked-"

Sans' arm shot out, and suddenly you were pressed back into the ground. It felt like you'd gained a hundred pounds, or like gravity had doubled on you. You fell back to your knees sharply and grunted as the wind was knocked out of you.

"Sans-"

"Is it true?" He cut you off, his voice cool and terrifyingly calm. "Are you soulless?"

"N-no!" You gasped, barely able to speak through the suffocating weight on your shoulders. Why was he doing this?! Flowey was gone, you both needed to beat it before Undyne found the two of you standing out in the open. "Look, we can talk about this later, let's just - gah!" Unheeding of your words, Sans rotated his hand so that it was palm-up and made a beckoning motion, much like Flowey had done with his leaves. You braced yourself for the now-familiar pulling sensation on your chest, but could barely even feel it over the force of Sans' magic baring down on you. You could hear the clicking sound, though, despite the ringing in your ears.

When nothing else happened, Sans turned away as though he couldn't bare to look at you. His expression was carefully blank. "You lied." His finger pointed accusingly at you, and you felt the weight increase even more. Your palms smacked the ground hard as you fell to your hands. Unable to lift your head, you heard rather than saw Sans walking toward you, his slippered feet crunching softly on the charred grass left in the blaster's wake. He crouched down to your level, his kneecaps coming into your field of view. Your elbows shook with the effort of keeping yourself from face-planting into the ground. "What happened to your soul? Why did that flower know you and I? And how, exactly, did you know about my blasters?" His tone was calm and quiet; he even sounded concerned for you.

"I don't know anything about my soul! I-I didn't know… about that… I swear!" It was true, you'd had no idea. The implications of that… you didn't want to think about it. Sans scoffed, as though that were preposterous. He didn't believe you. Your heart sank.

"And the other things?" You tried to lift your head up to look at him and gauge his reactions, but a force pressed your face down firmly. You thought he might've been physically holding your head down with his hand, but it was hard to tell.

"I-It's a long… uhg... s-story." Sweat rolled down your face as you huffed, straining to keep yourself upright. Was it just you, or was the weight steadily increasing? It was getting painful, now. You thought your spine might snap from the force being exerted on it.

"I've got time." Though he sounded impassive, Sans still showed pity on you and lightened his hold. Your shaking subsided, though you still couldn't lift your head. For the first time since you met him, you were honestly scared of Sans. There was no hostility in his voice, but from what you'd seen of his magic, you knew he had the power to snap your neck if he wanted to. Or turn you to ash with one shot from his blaster. The intimidation was a roadblock in your mind; you just couldn't get around it to think of a suitable lie. That, and, maybe a part of you didn't _want_ to lie anymore. You were so tired…

"I already knew you. Before I fell down here. I knew all of you. I know everything that happened here from the moment Frisk fell down to the moment they left. I know about the resets. I-"

" _What."_ For the first time, Sans' voice sounded dangerous. Well, there was no backing out now…

"Sans, I… I don't know for sure, but I think I might have even _caused_ the resets." The weight lifted enough that you could finally raise your head. When you did, you saw that Sans' face was right above yours, his eyes closed. There was a long, intimate moment in which you just stared at him, waiting for his reaction with bated breath. When his eyes finally opened, they were black and pitiless.

You had a brief, shining moment to regret telling the truth before you were flung sideways. Your head hit the stone wall of the cave hard, and you immediately blacked out.

Pain. It was everywhere. Everything ached, from your head to your toes. Your head, especially, pounded in time with your heartbeat.

"You have to help me," You vaguely registered a voice in front of you, getting clearer as you slowly regained consciousness, "I don't think I can do this alone."

"W-well, um, I d-don't know…"

"Dammit, Alphys, this is important! Your 'other obligations' are nothing compared to-" An involuntary groan escaped your lips, and the voices cut off abruptly. You tried to move, but found that you couldn't. Your hands were tied behind your back. This was not good.

"We should just bring them to Undyne." The second voice, a woman, whispered.

"Can't." The first voice - you recognized it now as Sans - spoke bluntly. You felt a hand on your shoulder, and you flinched. "Hey. I know you're awake." You struggled to peel your eyes open, since they were crusted shut with something sticky. The harsh, artificial light blinded you, and you groaned again. As your eyes adjusted, you began to make out your surroundings. The room you were in was crisp and cold, with bare walls and a tiled floor. The proportions of it were strange; it was very long, but not wide. You tried to turn your head to see the ends of the room, but you gave up when the motion hurt too much. Sans stood at your left, and you avoided looking at him, instead staring at another monster with rough, yellow skin and a long snout. _Alphys._ Your groggy mind provided.

"Do you know where we are?" Sans asked, his hand still on your shoulder, bracing you back against the chair you were tied to.

"Alphys' lab." You mumbled, realizing too late that you probably shouldn't have said that. Alphys and Sans shared a look. Alphys looked nervous and bewildered. You continued staring at her so that you wouldn't have to see Sans' expression.

"D-do I… eh… know you?" Alphys' voice was more feminine and less nasally than you'd imagined it. You weighed your options, and decided that you might as well continue telling the truth. Things were already falling apart. You were tied to a chair hostage-style, for fuck's sake.

"No, but I know you." You said cryptically, weighing your words carefully. How did you explain to someone that they were a fictional character inside of a video game?

"What does that mean?" Sans demanded, leaning into your field of view so that you were forced to look at him. You clicked your tongue. He was beginning to annoy you, and it was only making your headache worse.

"Untie me, and I'll tell you." Sans looked like he was about to refuse, but you interrupted him before he could speak, "You know me, Sans. I'm still the same person I was before, even if I don't…" You took a deep breath, "I'll admit, I lied about some things. But I still consider you my… friend." You caught yourself before you said 'boyfriend.' That was almost certainly off the table now. Strangely, you didn't feel bad about that. "The interrogation routine isn't necessary." You looked him in the eyes, trying not to think about how they'd gone black earlier that day. The two of you stared at each other for a few heartbeats before Sans moved behind you and freed your hands wordlessly.

As soon as you were let loose, you leaned forward and rubbed your wrists. They hadn't been tied nearly tight enough to hurt, but it was a reflex. You gasped when you saw the many cuts in your left arm. You brushed a thumb over them, frowning. They were probably from Flowey's thorny vine; you recalled receiving similar wounds on your ankles the day you fell into the Underground.

Next, you touched your own forehead gingerly, wincing when your hands came away with fresh blood. You wondered what your face looked like, and were glad that there weren't any mirrors nearby.

"Well?" Sans interrupted your self-examination, staring fixedly at you with his arms crossed.

"Slamming people head-first into stone walls can kill them, you know." You were only half-teasing. There was a flash of regret on Sans' face for a second before he returned to his blank stare.

"Stop stalling." You sighed and picked at the hem of your tank top.

"Do you guys… have video games down here?" You asked experimentally. Sans clenched his teeth as he started to get fed up with your evasiveness.

"Listen kid, if you don't start-"

"Yes!" Alphys blurted out, then blushed when all eyes turned to her. "Eheh, I mean, I, ehm, have a collection of video games. They f-fall down here sometimes… from the surface. Most of them are incompatible with the technology we possess, b-but some of them are really good!"

"Have you ever heard of a game called Undertale?" You were not surprised when you got blank looks from both of them. There were no physical copies of the game, so it couldn't have possibly found its way down here. "Well, in the game, you play as a kid who falls down a hole in a mountain. But in the mountain, there are monsters, who were sealed down there a long time ago by the humans." You bit your lip, feeling awkward. Your thoughts were scattered and disjointed, and you weren't sure if that was from the stressful situation or your recent head injury. Probably a combination of the two.

"Gotta say, this is sounding pretty familiar." Sans interjected, with his arms still crossed.

"Right! That's because it is… the kid's name is Frisk and, from what I can tell, everything in the Underground, down to the tiniest detail, is the same as it is in the game. That's how I know everything… because I played the game." There was a chilling silence in the room.

"That doesn't make sense. No human has ever fallen down here and made it back to the surface, except Frisk. Did Frisk make the game?" Sans looked skeptical. You hadn't considered that, but you didn't really think that a little kid had the ability to make a video game. And, even if they could, why would they?

"N-no, I don't… I don't think Frisk made it. I think the game came before the monsters, and that things that happen down here are a reflection of what happens in the game." You cringed; you'd known it would sound stupid when you said it out loud. "I mean, up on the surface, no one even knows that monsters exist. You'd think that, if this were real, we'd have some kind of record of it, right?"

"So you're saying we live in some kind of... virtual reality?" Sans scoffed. You'd never heard him sound so condescending. It didn't suit him.

"A-actually, that m-might make some sense," Alphys interjected, "The speed of light, for example, could be explained by…" She looked around, wringing her hands together, "Eh, well, The Barrier, itself, has some properties that su-suggest that it's a link between two separate realities. I once did a study on how matter reacts when exposed to it, and the laws of physics seem to break down…" Alphys stopped abruptly when Sans shook his head.

"But the kind of power it would have taken to create a whole new universe, just to contain the monsters? The humans who trapped us down here would never have been able to do it."

"It was seven humans, Sans!" The scientist's voice was shrill and sharp, which took you aback. "Just one human is more powerful than every monster in the Underground, combined. Seven of their best sages is an incomprehensible amount of strength." Now that she'd picked up momentum, her stuttering had stopped. You really hadn't thought of Alphys as the kind of person to argue with anyone; she must've cared about this a lot. Perhaps this wasn't the first time she'd thought about the possibility that they were all trapped in a virtual world. Sans clenched his left hand into a fist and ran his right over his own skull in a self-soothing action.

"Whatever. It doesn't even matter. So we're in a video game. Super. Nothin' we can do about it, anyway." His shoulders slumped, almost as if he were relieved. Like the fact that it was out of his hands was comforting to him. You didn't understand that.

"Well, actually… there might be something we can do about it." In the midst of their arguing, Alphys and Sans had momentarily forgotten about you, but now they both turned their attention to you. "I have a theory. I think that my actions in the game somehow caused what's been happening down here. Sans, how many resets have there been?" Selfishly, you hoped he didn't remember. Or, even better, that there had been a lot. Too many for you to have done on your own…

"Eleven." You winced. Yeah, that sounded like you. So much for being able to share the blame.

"I played the game twelve times. I think all of those resets were me, starting the game over," Suddenly, you remembered something. If _everything_ in the game was real, then… "I think I know where my soul went, too," You spoke slowly, ignoring Alphys' bewildered look and Sans' judgmental stare, "There's a… a certain point in the game, where a character asks for your soul…" A hushed silence fell over the room.

"Y-you, you mean you… sold your _soul_?" Alphys sounded horrified, and Sans had a pained look on his face. You shifted uncomfortably. They seemed a lot more upset about this than you were.

"Well, I just thought it was a game! I didn't know I was _really_ selling it!" You thought back to that moment, straining to remember what it had felt like. If you were being completely honest, you didn't remember feeling different at all. Were you really so fucked up that you couldn't even tell when your soul was taken? "Um… anyway…" You broke the uncomfortable silence by getting back to the point you'd been trying to make in the first place, "What I'm trying to say is, there's an ending in the game where Frisk breaks the barrier and everyone goes free. If I played the game again and got that ending, then everyone would be happy and we could move on-"

"Are you saying you want to reset _again_?" Sans' eyes went dangerously dark, the lights of his pupils only tiny pinpricks. You drummed your fingers on the arm of your chair restlessly.

"Only once, just to get the good ending. We could all just forget any of this ever happened… literally. Except for me… and you, I guess." You looked at Sans and, not for the first time, wondered why he was the only one who remembered the resets. You didn't know the full extent of his knowledge, but he'd known exactly how many times you'd restarted the game, so he must've had some memory of previous timelines. Sans and Alphys shared a look.

"Assuming you're telling the truth…" Sans spoke reluctantly, as though he still didn't want to believe you and Alphys were right, "How are you gonna play this game? You're stuck down here, just like everyone else." He made a good point.

"Um, I m-might have a solution to that, actually." Alphys took a step forward and smoothed out her lab coat. "I've been working on some plans to make a, uh, satellite, sort of. With spare parts from the junkyard and some clever magic, I'm confident I could connect to the humans' computer network. I thought it might be useful to be able to contact the people on the surface, but, uh, Undyne didn't want me to…" She paused, wringing her hands. You guessed that might've been a source of conflict between the two of them. "A-anyway, with some tweaking, I think I could use the satellite to connect my computer to yours on the surface, and get your video game files down here. Do… do you think that would work?" She looked at you. She was so short that, even though you were sitting, the two of you were nearly at eye-level.

"Yeah, I mean, I think so… as long as your computer can run the game. What're your specs?" You asked casually, feeling comfortable with this conversation for the first time. You must've asked this question a hundred times to different people; it was a normal conversation topic between you and your similarly nerdy friends.

"Uh… w-what is that?" And, just like that, the moment was gone.

"You know… your computer?" You asked, desperately, feeling despondent when she gave you a blank look. "What kind of computer do you have?" Alphys seemed incredibly lost.

"Eh… why don't you take a look at it?" She gestured helplessly to her desk, upon which sat an ancient-looking tower and monitor. That wasn't encouraging.

Not thinking things through, you pushed yourself to your feet far too quickly. Blood drained from your head, making the room spin and your gut lurch. You would have fallen over if Sans hadn't seen the signs and caught you before you hit the ground.

"Oh my gosh! Are you okay?" Alphys bit her lip, hovering near you with her hands out. Sans held onto you until you regained your balance, but let go and stepped back as soon as he feasibly could.

"Fine." You grunted, putting a hand to your head and holding it. In the excitement of the intense conversation, you'd forgotten about your injuries. But, now that they'd made themselves noticed again, you couldn't un-notice them. Your neck ached when you turned it, you legs were painfully sore, and your head. God, your head felt _horrible_. It was even worse than when you'd gotten knocked around by Flowey way back in the Ruins. Even if you hadn't been concussed then, you certainly were now.

"Are you sure? M-maybe you should… lie down?" Your body screamed at you to agree, but the look on Sans' face made you reconsider. He didn't say anything, but he looked frustrated at the idea of waiting.

"No," You said firmly, "I wouldn't be able to rest, anyway. Not until I… _we_ , come up with a plan." It was partially true; you'd always found it difficult to relax when there were still things that needed to get done. But mostly, you just didn't want to make Sans any more angry with you than he already was.

You stumbled over to the messy desk, with Alphys hovering behind you in case you fell, and Sans keeping a good distance away. Seeing that the computer was already booted up, you wiggled the mouse to get the screen to wake up. Immediately, you groaned,

"Ugh, doesn't anyone have anything newer than Windows 2000? There's no way the game will run on this OS." You leaned heavily on the desk, wishing you would've brought the chair with you. "And besides… I own a Mac. My game files aren't gonna be compatible with Windows." You tried to run a hand through your hair, then wrinkled your nose when you felt that it was matted with blood. "I think the only way we could do this is if I was able to physically access my own computer." The ringing in your ears, which had been present since the incident with the blaster, was growing louder. You steadfastly ignored it.

"Hate to break it to ya, kid, but that's not gonna happen. You need a human soul and a monster soul to cross the barrier and, I don't know if you've noticed, but, you don't have either of those things." Sans pointed out, unhelpfully.

"Two keys." You muttered under your breath, rubbing your temples as the ringing threatened to overwhelm you.

"W-what?" Alphys looked concerned for you. You shook your head to clear it, struggling to hold unconsciousness at bay.

"You give up too easily, Sans. That's your problem." Sans shrugged, unfazed by your insult. "Even if we can't run the game, we can at least access the files. There's a file in there that gets created when Chara takes your soul… I never bothered to delete it because I didn't really think it mattered. I mean, I'd already seen the pacifist ending, so why bother?" Dimly, you realized you were rambling. You felt lightheaded. "But maybe, if I delete that, then… bam. Re-souled. I mean, I'd still need a monster soul, which will probably be harder. But all I need to get my soul back is some inter-dimensional wifi…" You started to laugh. Even Sans looked worried, which only made you laugh harder. Alphys' mouth moved, but the ringing had gotten so loud that you could hear nothing else. You felt weak, weaker than usual, and everything was spinning. There was a brief sensation of falling, but you didn't even feel yourself hitting the floor before everything went black again.


	14. Spoiled

When you awoke, you were in an unfamiliar bed. You inhaled sharply as the memories came flooding back. You groaned and rubbed your face with both hands; you just wanted to sleep forever and not have to face the consequences of what you'd done.

You allowed yourself this brief moment of self-pity, but eventually you forced yourself to peel your hands away from your eyes and take stock of your situation. Patting yourself down revealed that you were still in your same blood-soaked tank top and sweatpants combo, and none of your wounds had been taken care of. It was a stark contrast from the hospitality you'd received the last time you'd passed out and were taken care of by Sans. At least he'd had the courtesy to move you to a bed… or had that been Alphys' doing? Would Sans have just left you were you fell if it had been up to him?

Truth be told, you weren't really sure what Sans would have done or, more importantly, what he would do in the future. A day ago, you would have said you had a pretty comprehensive understanding of who Sans was as a person. Now, you were unsure. That grin plastered on his face at all times made him very hard to read. And now that you were in a situation that had never even come close to anything that had happened in the game, you felt… lost. At least Sans had been willing to hear you out. That fact comforted you, if only a little.

In the meantime, you had a splitting headache and some mildly concerning cuts on your forearm. Any injuries you'd received had long since stopped bleeding, but it felt like your whole face was covered in crusty, dried blood. You needed a shower and some bandages, at the very least. Preferably a change of clothes, too.

You sat up in bed and took a look around. It was dark, but there was a faint light coming from what looked like the first floor of the lab. You heard the sound of hushed voices, but you couldn't make out what they were saying over the constant hum of machinery. Deciding that going down there yourself was out of the question, you called out hesitantly,

"Hello? Is anybody there?" The voices cut off abruptly. There was the pitter-patter of feet, and soon you saw a silhouette emerge from the conveyor to your left. That was probably where the humming was coming from, now that you thought about it; there were conveyor belts all over this place.

"H-h-hi." Alphys shuffled over to you, looking guarded. Even in the dim light, you could see a bead of sweat on her brow. "S-sorry, we… we carried you up here. I, uh, we thought you would be more comfortable?" You craned your neck to peer over her shoulder, but saw no one else.

"Is Sans still here?" You weren't sure if you were relieved or upset when Alphys shook her head.

"Uh, well, he was just downstairs, but… he-he left." She said bluntly as she wrung her hands. "D-do you… need something?" You clutched the blankets under you, a little nervous to have been left alone with a stranger in their own house. _It's Alphys,_ You thought to yourself, _She's not a stranger._

"I was just wondering… do you have a shower? And maybe some bandages?" You pointed to your head, and Alphys jumped up.

"Oh! O-of course! The bathroom's just over there," She gestured over her shoulder, "I can show you…?" Alphys hovered at the side of the bed as you stood up, painfully slow. Your legs shook under you, especially the left, and you bitterly wished for your cane. "Do you need any help?" Much to your surprise, she held out her hand to you. You bit your lip, suddenly overwhelmed with how nice she was being to this soulless human whom she just met.

"Thank you." You took her scaly hand in yours gratefully, leaning on it as you began to limp to the other side of the lab. As the two of you passed by the worktable, Alphys spoke again.

"Y-you know, I… um… d-don't really understand exactly w-what you've done. But, I h-haven't always done the right thing, either. S-s-so, whatever happened, I think, m-maybe, you deserve a s-second chance." You felt a rush of affection for Alphys. She'd never been your favorite character in the game, but you thought you were already coming to appreciate her more now.

"That's really nice of you. But this is more like my thirteenth chance, if we're being accurate." Alphys laughed nervously, and you figured that might not have been the most appropriate thing to say. As the two of you progressed down the room, you wracked your brain for something better. "And, uh, I know all about the lab, and the Amalgamates. And... I think you deserve a second chance, too." Alphys looked shocked, and almost let go of your hand. You stumbled, but Alphys recovered and continued supporting your weight before you could fall. Even in the darkness, you could see her cheeks blushing furiously.

"I-I haven't t-told anyone about that!" Her voice was shrill, and you wondered if you'd said the wrong thing again.

"You could, you know. People won't be as mad as you think they will. And I would know," You shrugged, "But, I mean, you don't have to. Just... think about it, maybe?" You both stopped as you reached the door at the end of the room. You didn't think that had been there in the game, but it might've been a trick of the perspective.

"I… I guess…" She let go of your hand and opened the door for you, revealing a small bathroom with only a shower and a wall-mounted mirror, "Th-thank you." Alphys pushed up her glasses, looking awkward just standing there. You gave her a patient smile and slipped into the bathroom, closing the door softly behind you.

As soon as you were alone, you examined yourself in the mirror. It was… well, about what you'd expected. The right side of your face was a gross, brownish-red from all the stale blood, and your hair was an absolute disaster. You peeled your shirt off painfully, and hissed when you saw the discolored skin of your torso. You could see your ribs outlined in dark bruises that wound their way down to your stomach. For a moment, you weren't even sure how you'd gotten such extensive bruising, but then you remembered the vine that Flowey had wrapped around your torso. You were probably lucky that none of your ribs were broken; or at least, you didn't think they were.

Once you'd finished struggling to divest yourself of your dirty clothes, you stepped under the warm spray of the shower carefully. You bit your own knuckles to keep from screaming when the water touched your wounds. You'd been expecting the burning sting, but that didn't make it any less painful. As soon as you adjusted to the water, you reached a shaky hand out to grab the shampoo. Briefly, you wondered why Alphys had shampoo when she didn't have any hair, then you realized with mild horror that it was probably for when Undyne stayed over. You hated the idea of using her things, but it wasn't like you had a lot of options. With a long-suffering sigh, you slathered your matted hair with the shampoo, working as much of the blood out as you could while avoiding the spots that hurt too much to touch.

When your hair was as clean as it was going to get, you sat down on the tiled floor and picked at the crusted blood on your face. You weren't too worried about sitting naked in the shower; the bathroom was so clean, it was practically sterile. You preferred to risk it than to stand unassisted for another second.

After the longest and most painful shower of your life, you were beyond relieved to see that someone had placed a neat pile of towels, clothes, and clean bandages on the floor for you. You hadn't heard Alphys come in, but you assumed it was she who had left the gift. However, you instantly recognized the clothes as being from Sans' dresser, and you weren't really sure what to think about that. Regardless, you dried yourself off and pulled on the clothes all while still sitting on the floor, because you couldn't bare the thought of dragging yourself to your feet again. Eventually, though, you had no choice but to leverage yourself up using the wall, since you had to look in the mirror if you wanted to examine your head wound.

The damage was ghastly; there was a long, jagged crack near your hairline, so large that you were surprised it had managed to seal itself up before you bled out. You were certain it would scar if left to its own devices, but you didn't dare pick at it for fear of breaking the clot. Resignedly, you wrapped the bandage around it, grimacing. You put the leftover material around your arm, too, for good measure.

Finally, after spending what had to have been at least an hour in the bathroom, you emerged. You'd been hoping to just crawl back into Alphys' bed, as rude as that might've been, but were disappointed to see that it was folded up into an easy-to-draw cube. Instead, you were forced to take the conveyor belt downstairs in search of Alphys.

You didn't find Alphys, but, to your surprise, Sans was standing at the bottom of the conveyor belt as though he had been waiting for you to arrive. You wondered if you could move fast enough to run up the conveyor backwards, but before you could even try you noticed Sans was holding something in his hands that you desperately needed.

"Oh my god, thank you." You said with the utmost sincerity as you took your cane from him, holding it almost reverently.

"Yeah," He said simply as he stuffed his hands in his pockets, "Alphys went to the junk pile to start looking for satellite parts. I said I'd meet up with her." It took you a moment to get what he was implying.

"Oh, um, I'll help. Of course." You didn't think you'd be much use in your current state, but if Sans wanted you to go, you figured you'd better go. A mean little voice in the back of your mind wondered how long Sans expected you to suck up to him, but you tried to ignore it. Sans nodded curtly.

"Follow me." You limped after him, by now mostly used to the disorienting sensation of taking one of his shortcuts. In only a few steps, you found yourself in a place you had never been before, but instantly recognized from the game. There were garbage heaps stacked precariously in seemingly random locations, and the rushing sound of many different waterfalls filled your ears. The whole place was flooded ankle-deep with water, but pallets of wood laid out in a curving path kept you from getting your feet wet. You recognized Alphys a short distance away, digging through one of the bigger garbage piles. Sans didn't give you much time to look around, though, as you had to hurry after him when he set off at a brisk pace down the path of wooden planks.

"So, your leg's better." Sans spoke with forced casualness. You begged to differ, since the both of them felt like hell at the moment, but you knew what he was referring to.

"Uh, yeah. Sorry, it was just…. I told Flowey - that flower that attacked us - that I would leave once my leg was healed. So I didn't want him to know that it was getting better." You could only see the back of Sans' skull, so it was impossible to see his expression.

"How did you know that flower? And how did he know me?" It seemed that the real reason Sans wanted you to help in the junkyard was so that he could continue his interrogation of you. That was beyond frustrating; couldn't this have waited until you _didn't_ have a pounding headache? He must've heard your involuntary sigh, because he stopped abruptly and spun around to face you, pointing a finger in your face, "Don't give me that. I have a right to know this shit, and you're gonna tell me, without the attitude." You flinched back, jolting in fear at his sudden movements. You forced yourself to nod silently, remembering that it was because of Sans that you had this headache to begin with. He was being pretty damn nice to you, all things considered.

"Flowey was the first monster to find me when I fell into the Underground. He was going to kill me, but I pretended to be his lost sibling and he let me go. He knows you because he also remembers the resets, and he met you in some of them." Sans looked confused, but satisfied with your answer. He retracted his finger and turned around slowly, starting down the path again.

"He seemed a little familiar, but," You saw the backs of his shoulders move up and down in a shrug, "There's a lot of things I don't remember anymore." With that, Sans veered to the right, his slippered feet splashing in the water as he approached a garbage pile. "We're lookin' for scrap aluminum. Especially the mesh… like from screen doors. But anything you can find would be good." Oh, god, he really did want you to help, didn't he? You pursed your lips, but said nothing as you stepped off of the pallet and into the cold water. You began to sift through some of the lighter garbage, unable to lift the heavier stuff while one of your hands was occupied with the cane.

"So… twelve times, huh?" Yeah, this was going to suck. You stole a glance at Alphys, wishing she would rescue you, but she was too far away to even hear the conversation.

"Yup." You replied bluntly, not sure what Sans wanted from you.

"...Why?" There was a hint of exhaustion in his voice. It startled you. "I mean, I get the first time. You made a mistake, got a bad ending. But then, the second time, we were free. It was so…" He took a steadying breath, but said no more. Guilt gnawed at you.

"I just… wanted to know what else could happen." It was a bad excuse; you knew it was. But it was the truth. "I wasn't going to, at first. But, after a week, I wanted to play it again. I didn't know…" You didn't bother finishing. You'd said it so many times already, there was no use saying it again. Hoping to change the subject, you held up a can and asked, "Hey, should we even bother with these?"

"Yeah, every little bit counts. Start a pile." You retraced your steps and dragged one of the wood pallets closer to the garbage, throwing the can on top of it. Well, it was a start, at least. "You wanna know what the worst one was?" Shit, it seemed Sans would not be deterred from this conversation. Slowly, you went back to digging through the trash.

"I have a pretty good idea." You cringed just thinking about it. You really, _really_ didn't want to talk about this…

"I bet you think it was that one where you killed me for fun, right?" His dark chuckle sent a shiver down your spine. "It _was_ for sport, wasn't it? Why else would you keep reloading, even after you won? You did it so many times, I lost track. Don't even remember most of it, thankfully." You said nothing, because he was right. You'd played the game where you killed everyone twice; once to see what would happen, and once just for fun. You distinctly remembered killing Sans over and over again, trying to do it without ever getting hit. You gave up before that happened.

"But you're wrong," Sans continued on so casually, as though he were talking about the weather, "That wasn't the worst one. Nah, the worst was number eleven. You remember that one?" He wasn't even working anymore, just staring at you as you crouched down and sifted through a garbage bag full of junk. You felt the hairs on the back of your neck prickle. "You killed almost everyone, but not enough. Left a few stragglers behind. I didn't fight you, 'cause I thought you just screwed it up. That, when you realized, you'd reset right away and try again. But you didn't." He took a step toward you. You turned away. "You left me there. For twenty-seven days. I wasn't technically alone, but I might as well have been. Thought it was never gonna end… that I might be alone forever. It was the first time I was happy about a reset." You heard his footsteps in the water as he took a few steps closer. Your hands shook. "'Course, a close second would have to be the first time you killed Papyrus-"

"STOP IT!" You flew to your feet and whirled around to face him, throwing the bag of garbage down violently. You stood nose-to-nonexistent-nose with Sans, your free hand clenched in a fist. "I remember, okay?! I fucked up. I know. I FUCKING KNOW! Here's a novel idea; how about, instead of taking me on a guilt trip, you help me look for some goddamn aluminum so I can get the hell out of here?! Then you'll finally be happy, because you'll never have to speak to me _AGAIN!_ " You had a great height advantage over Sans but, to his credit, he didn't flinch. Or even emote at all. You let out one final, wordless noise of frustration before turning back to the garbage pile, throwing things around with more aggression than was absolutely necessary.

"I don't want that." Sans' voice was almost too quiet for you to hear. You stopped and looked over your shoulder, bewildered.

"Huh?"

"I don't want to never speak to you again." Sans shrugged, grimaced, and said no more, shuffling over to the garbage pile but keeping a good distance away from you. There was a long stretch of silence, both of you deep in thought. Then, suddenly, something Sans had said made you remember,

"Oh, god, what happened to Papyrus? He and Undyne-"

"Paps is fine. Undyne was pissed, but she would never have hurt him." You breathed a sigh of relief, then realized that Sans must have seen Papyrus since then. Maybe while you had been in the shower.

"So, uh, what did you tell him?" You shifted your weight nervously. The idea of Papyrus knowing about your betrayal was… uncomfortable.

"Nothin'. When you ran away, I was in the basement. I heard the commotion and went upstairs. I broke up the fight, and Undyne went runnin' off to look for you. Paps told me what happened, so I went to look for you, too. Told Papyrus to stay home, in case you came back," He paused, his grin slipping a little, "After… all that, I went back home and told him I couldn't find you, but I'd keep looking. He thinks I'm looking for you right now. He's… uh… real upset." You silently cursed at yourself. If you had just gone down to the basement instead of panicking and running off to Waterfall, all of this could've been avoided. You wondered how different things would be right now if you had done that, then quickly nipped that thought in the bud. Thinking like that was how you'd gotten into this mess in the first place.

"You should probably tell him the truth." As much as you hated to admit it, there was no reason to keep Papyrus in the dark anymore, so you gave Sans the go-ahead.

"No." You looked at the skeleton quizzically, wondering if you'd heard him right.

"Uh, yeah? He's upset, you just said it yourself. I'd rather have him know what I did than think I'm dead, or something." Sans shook his head resolutely,

"No, he doesn't need to know. He'll just forget about it anyway, once the reset happens. Why bother?" You watched him for a long while, but ultimately decided to bite your tongue.

"Okay. I disagree, but it's your call."

"Damn right it is." He muttered darkly, and you pretended not to hear. If Sans wanted to lie to his brother, that was his prerogative. You weren't going to take part in it, even though you were secretly a little relieved.

There was another long period of time in which neither of you spoke, both just silently collecting aluminum and adding it to the pile. You made a big breakthrough and found a huge screen door, and you had needed Sans' magical assistance in order to get it out from the bottom of the junk heap. After that, Sans seemed to realize that he could just levitate objects instead of doing any physical work, so he lounged on top of the aluminum collection doing just that while you broke your back digging out scraps. You made a point to throw any cans you found at his face, and were surprised, yet pleased, when it got a chuckle out of him.

A while later, Sans spoke up, "Alright, I've got a question for ya. Don't get pissed." You hid your smile, privately glad that he was afraid of you getting mad.

"No promises." You said, jokingly (and wow, it felt good to joke with him again). Sans flung a stray toothbrush back into the junk pile with the flick of his wrist.

"Who'd you sell your soul to?" You paused in your digging, biting your lip. Deciding that now was a good time to take a break, you plunked yourself down on the wood pallet with Sans, sitting on the opposite side of the aluminum collection.

"Have you ever heard of Chara?"

"The first kid that fell down here? Yeah…?" You took off your shoes and socks, which were too wet to have been doing you any good anymore. There were too many rusty, sharp things on the floor here to be able to keep them off while you were working, but it felt good to free your sore feet for the moment.

"That's who." You said simply, wishing you had the flexibility to be able to massage your own feet.

"Well, that makes no sense. They're dead." Sans kept on pulling things from the pile that looked like they might be aluminum, but he put less and less effort into it as time wore on.

"Yup. They, uh, kind of possessed Frisk. Or at least shared their body. I'm not really sure what happened, there," You admitted with a shrug, "But, after the first time I… well… killed everybody, they asked me for my soul and, in return, they'd let me keep playing the game." In retrospect, it was a pretty dumb reason for someone to sell their soul. Thankfully, Sans didn't point that out, though you sensed he was thinking it. He didn't say anything for a while, but eventually thumped his head against the aluminum pile, sending a couple of cans rolling to the bottom.

"This sucks." Sans said, bluntly. You couldn't help it; you burst into humorless laughter,

"That's putting it mildly!" Sans' smile tilted upward, but before either of you could speak again, someone else called out,

"H-hey, guys!" Both of you turned to see Alphys walking over to you, dragging a huge pile of scrap metal on a sheet behind her. You and Sans looked at each other guiltily; your pile was about half the size of Alphys', and the two of you had been working together.

"I-I think we have enough t-to get started." She said proudly as she stopped near you, wiping sweat off of her brow. You scrambled to put your shoes back on, forgoing the socks, and Sans hurried to add your collection to Alphys' load. He jokingly suggested that you throw your cane into the pile, until you clutched it to your chest protectively, retorting with, _"It's not even aluminum, dumbass!"_ The exchange brought a relieved look to Alphys' face; you figured she was probably glad the two of you weren't tearing each other's throats out. It made you wonder if she'd heard you shouting earlier.

After the three of you took one of Sans' shortcuts back to the lab, Alphys immediately began sorting through the heaping pile of metal.

"Whelp, I better get home." Sans announced, "It's almost bedtime, and you know how Pap gets without his story."

"Can I go with you?" You asked, hopefully. Sans' smile fell instantly.

"No." You nodded, disappointed but not particularly surprised. Would you ever get to speak to Papyrus again? The thought was… not as upsetting as you thought it should've been. You wondered if that was normal, or if re-souled you would have been sadder. You'd been questioning a lot of your emotional responses, lately.

"Y-you can stay with me!" Alphys reassured you, and you smiled at her.

"Thanks, Alphys." When you looked back at Sans, he was already gone. You sighed softly and sat down next to your new host, helping her sort out the usable aluminum from the trash. Sitting on the floor in the lab, you had the sudden realization that, even though you now had a plan for how to proceed, you still had an awfully long way to go.

"Oh my god, I almost forgot! I found t-this mug… it looks just like you!" Alphys distracted you by holding up a mug that, frankly, looked nothing like you. You laughed, and the two of you argued good-naturedly about it.

At least you had a new friend who was determined to help you through.


	15. Fool Me Once

The following days were filled with never-ending work, which was honestly kind of a blessing. Building a giant satellite distracted you from all of your other problems, of which there were many. You and Alphys (mostly Alphys, if you were being honest) devised a way to melt the aluminum scrap you'd scavenged using heat from the magma that was all over the Hotlands. Then, the two of you worked together to pour the melted aluminum into a hollow steel pipe, letting it cool to form a rod which would make up part of the skeleton of the satellite dish. The problem was that it took around forty cans just to make a pound of aluminum. While there were a couple of big-ticket items (a bike, a baseball bat, and a ladder, to be precise) that yielded more usable aluminum, the two of you still only had enough to make three rods. You needed eight, according to Alphys. Plus, even though you and Alphys had each found a screen door, you didn't have nearly enough aluminum mesh to cover the dish. So, long story short, you needed to go back to the garbage dump.

The satellite project was physically demanding work; or at least, it was for a disabled human and a nerd who rarely left her lab. During your break time, you needed something else to do. After a lot of begging on your part, that something became taking care of the Amalgamates. Initially, Alphys had been reluctant to let you near them, but you managed to break her resolve with the promise that you would never make fun of the failed experiments or do anything to hurt them. On your third day in Alphys' home, she led you down to the True Lab and showed them to you like they were some kind of shameful secret. Which, you supposed, they were.

Honestly, they weren't as scary as you'd expected them to be. You supposed that, after spending weeks living with literal skeletons who could've killed you if they'd wanted to, the bar for "scary" was pretty high. While their dripping, gooey exterior was certainly weird, once you got used to that, the Amalgamates were just like any other monster. Some of them were more lucid than others, but none of them struck you as aggressive. So, when you were tired or waiting for molten aluminum to cool, you and Alphys went down the elevator and spent some time with the Amalgamates. It was hard to tell sometimes, but you liked to think they appreciated the company.

Sans came around every now and then to help, always bringing with him a small stack of aluminum nicknacks. His version of "helping" consisted mainly of lounging about, informing you when, in his opinion, you were doing something wrong. He never seemed to pick on Alphys; in fact, now that tempers had settled down, you noticed there was a distinct air of tension between them. They clearly had some sort of history, but you weren't willing to stick your neck out and ask about it.

The most useful thing Sans did during his visits was bend the finished aluminum rods into the shape they needed to be. According to Alphys, they all had to be perfect parabolas. That wasn't a problem for Sans, who used his magic to mold them into shape. He was surprisingly precise; every rod he touched turned out identical to the last. At the rate you were going, you figured it would take the three of you about a week and a half to finish the physical part of the satellite dish, assuming you could find enough mesh to cover it. Alphys had been pretty vague when she'd described the magic part to you, so you weren't quite sure how long that would take. You hoped you'd be re-souled in around two weeks. Until then, you supposed you'd just continue not thinking about it.

On day seven of the satellite project, you, Sans, and Alphys were working on finishing up the sixth rod when a loud, booming knock on the door brought your work to an abrupt end. All three of you turned automatically to the huge monitor, which displayed all of Alphys' security cameras (One of which was nothing but static, thanks to you. Alphys had been none too amused when you'd confessed to breaking her valuable camera). A shiver of fear ran down your back when you saw that the visitor standing just outside the front door was none other than Undyne. Sans gritted his teeth, his eyes narrowing. Alphys wrung her hands together.

"M-maybe she's just… checking up on me?" She said, hopefully, but Sans shot her down,

"I don't think so. She's been tailing Paps and I ever since she found you with us." His eyes flicked to you, then back to the monitor where Undyne could be seen tapping her foot impatiently. "I've been able to shake 'er off most of the time, but I think she saw me at the dump this morning, collecting aluminum. She might suspect something." There was another loud knock on the door, accompanied by a shout,

"HEY! I know you nerds are up to something in there… I can see that weird metal thing on the roof!" All three of you groaned at the same time; you even went so far as to face-palm yourself. You'd suggested at the beginning of the project that the satellite skeleton be assembled at its final resting place - the roof - before it got too big to fit through the doors and too heavy for Sans to lift with his magic. Alphys and Sans had agreed, but none of you considered that a giant, metal structure on top of the lab would look more than a little out of place. Of course Undyne was suspicious; first she sees Sans collecting aluminum, then she finds a half-finished, aluminum satellite dish on top of Alphys' place. It wasn't hard to put two and two together.

"I could just make something up." Alphys suggested. You were surprised at first that she was so willing to lie to Undyne, but then you remembered; Alphys had a lot of practice with lying. Sans seemed ready to agree, but…

"No. She'll find out eventually, anyway. And I think… if you explain it to her, Alphys, she might be more willing to accept it than if she were to figure it out on her own." If you'd learned anything from your time in the Underground, it was that, while lying might fix short-term problems, it only created more trouble in the long run. The satellite was only half-done, and even if it worked and you got your soul back, you were still stuck down here until you could obtain a monster soul. If Undyne was hunting you that whole time… well, you didn't like your chances. It would simplify the situation a great deal if you didn't have to hide.

You crossed your arms and looked between the two of them, waiting for someone to argue. But, shockingly, there were no protests.

"Fine, but you should hide for now. If she sees you right away, she'll freak." Sans reasoned, and you grudgingly agreed.

"OH MY GOD I'M ABOUT TO BREAK THIS DOOR DOWN." All of you jumped. In the midst of your debate, you'd kind of forgotten that Undyne was still standing right outside the door. Urgently, Alphys ushered you to the elevator. You had to admit, it was a better hiding spot than the bathroom.

"S-sorry! I'll c-come down and get you w-when it's safe!" Before any other words could be exchanged, the elevator doors glided shut, just barely closing in time before Undyne managed to kick down the front door.

"WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON AROUND HERE?!" Undyne's voice was so loud, it was barely muffled by the elevator doors.

"Undyne! W-we can explain-"

"YOU'D BETTER! First, I find out my own friends are… are _harboring_ a human, THEN I find out you two are working together in secret! What the hell?! You HATE each other!" Your hand hovered over the 'down' button. You knew Alphys had intended for you to go to the basement, but… the conversation was getting interesting.

"Huh, would ya look at the time? Guess I should get goin'. See ya."

"W-wait! Sans, don't - oh, shoot." Alphys sighed, and you assumed Sans had left through a shortcut.

"What's his deal?" Abandoning all pretense of leaving, you sat down on the floor, cane resting between your legs. This was just too good for you to pass up.

"W-we, eh, d-disagreed over something… a long time ago. T-that's why we d-don't get along. Much."

"Really?! I always thought it was because he was jealous that Asgore gave the Royal Scientist job to you instead of him."

"No… Sans isn't really the, uh, jealous type." You barely kept from snorting, and stored that information for future use.

"ANYWAY. What could you guys possibly be doing with that big hunk of metal?" It was hard to tell, but you thought Undyne sounded less angry now that it was just her and Alphys. Maybe it was a good thing that Sans had left.

"Y-You have to p-p-promise not t-to get mad…" You winced; Alphys' stuttering was worse than ever. Maybe Undyne picked up on that, because her tone of voice was calmer than you'd ever heard it before.

"Yeah, alright." With that, Alphys began.

You zoned out a little during the scientist's long explanation. You knew all of this already; she was just repeating everything you'd told her, but in a more coherent way. It seemed that Alphys and Sans had talked about you in private, because she knew certain details about how Sans had found you that you'd never told her. The thought of people talking about you behind your back was uncomfortable.

Every now and then, Undyne interjected with a question, but she was quiet for the most part. You wished you could've seen her reactions. But, then again, you were also glad you weren't physically present for this explanation. Sans was right… Undyne would not have been happy if the first thing she'd seen when she burst through the door had been you.

You'd only been half-listening to the mostly one-sided conversation, until Undyne exclaimed suddenly,

"Alphys, this is great! Why didn't you tell me about this earlier?!" You were confused and, by the sound of it, so was Alphys.

"Uhh…?"

"I mean, thank god I didn't kill the human earlier! I wouldn't have gotten a soul out of them. It would've been a huge waste!" You pursed your lips. Of course, Undyne only wanted you for your soul. "I don't really understand the whole satellite, virtual-reality crap, but if you can get the human's soul, then I can absorb it, and go through the barrier! Then I'll just get six more souls from the surface and we can all finally be free..." You waited for Alphys to correct her, but-

"Y-yeah… I mean, Sans and I talked about that…" Your teeth clenched. Your "friends" had failed to mention that little detail of the plan to you.

"Great! Then, uh, where _is_ the human? Do you have it locked up somewhere?" Quickly, you got to your feet and jabbed the 'down' button so hard that your knuckle cracked. It was better if Alphys didn't find you eavesdropping, especially now.

As soon as you stepped out of the elevator, you were practically assaulted by Endogeny. The dog-fusion had taken a particular liking to you, for some reason. All of the other Amalgamates tended to avoid you unless Alphys was there, too. You wondered if they could sense there was something wrong with you.

"Not you, though… right, buddy?" You allowed the creature to slobber all over you as you rubbed it between the ears. These were Sans' clothes, anyway; you didn't care if they got doggy drool all over them. "You're the only one I can trust around here, aren't you?" It quivered happily, frothing from an orifice. You took that as a 'yes.' You leaned against the wall, throwing your cane as far as you could down the long, entrance hallway. The sound of it clattering on the floor echoed loudly, but the dog didn't mind the noise. It scittered around on the walls, excited to be playing with someone. As you played fetch with Endogeny, you had a quiet moment to think.

It made sense that Sans and Alphys had been plotting to backstab you. Having a monster absorb your soul to cross the barrier was more practical than trying to find a way to get a monster soul into _your_ body. Besides, allowing you back on the surface would be putting you in complete control of the fate of the Underground, via the game. After what you'd done, you didn't blame Sans for not trusting you with that responsibility, even though you had no intention of doing anything other than freeing the monsters. Getting your soul back and then having a monster absorb it was the logical conclusion to this situation. You would've done the same, if you'd been in their positions.

But you couldn't let that happen. You didn't want to die over this; the very essence of your being rebelled against it. Down in the dark basement, throwing your cane to a mutated dog, you decided that you didn't want your soul back. If having it meant your own death, then Chara could keep it.

As that resolution settled in your gut, the elevator door opened up again, revealing Alphys. She startled, as though she hadn't expected you to be standing right outside the door.

"Y-you can come back up… Undyne left, b-but she's in on the satellite project now. She said she'll come back tomorrow with more aluminum to donate to the it. I have a f-feeling she'll be better at finding that stuff than we are… maybe we'll even finish sooner!" You forced a smile, but the thought of completing the satellite made you anxious. If you were going to do something to prevent the return of your soul, you'd have to act fast.

What you needed was a good plan.

You did not have a good plan.

You'd spent the rest of the afternoon trying to think of the best course of action, but you could only come up with half of a plan. The only thing you could think of was to destroy the unfinished satellite and effectively bring the project to a temporary halt. But that was just it; it was a temporary solution. Assuming there was enough scrap aluminum in The Underground, Alphys could keep building new satellites forever. You needed to think of some way to stop her for good. Briefly, you considered… something drastic. But doing that would've really made you a soulless monster. You didn't have to resort to that. (Did you…?)

For now, the plan was to stall until you could think of a better plan. If you snuck out in the middle of the night, destroyed the satellite, and snuck back in, then hopefully no one would guess it was you who sabotaged the project and you'd at least get more time to think of a permanent solution. You didn't know how you were going to think your way out of the Underground now when that's all you'd been trying to do ever since you fell down here, but, hey. Maybe you worked better under pressure.

When the sun fell and Alphys went to bed, you put your pseudo-plan into action. Sneaking out of the lab was stupidly easy. You and Alphys had agreed to switch off using the bed, and tonight was your night to sleep on the floor downstairs. The door was only a few steps from where you slept and, since Undyne had completely destroyed it, there wasn't even a proper door, only a sheet that you easily slipped past.

You'd climbed the ladder to the roof often enough that it didn't even make your stomach lurch anymore. What _did_ intimidate you was the sheer size of the satellite. Aluminum doesn't rust easily, and there wasn't any rain in this part of the Underground, anyway, so the metal contraption was just laying out in the open. Its diameter took up almost the entire width of the roof, and a good portion of the length. You figured that the only way to completely destroy it was to push it into the lava; which was no easy feat. You frowned as you set your cane aside, placing your hands on two of the rods and getting in position to give it a mighty shove. You regretted doing this; the satellite was, after all, partly your creation, and you didn't like to see it destroyed. But if this would save your life, it was worth it.

With that in mind, you put all your weight into the half-finished dish. The good news was that it wasn't as heavy as you'd anticipated, but the bad news was that it made a loud, grating noise as it scraped across the roof. You stopped abruptly, biting your lip. Not for the first time, you wished you had Sans' ability to levitate objects. Just as you were thinking this, you heard a familiar voice to your left,

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, kid." You spun around, still clutching the satellite with one hand. Sure enough, there was Sans. Always showing up at the worst times…

"How'd you know?" The question sounded accusatory coming out of your mouth. Sans hadn't even _seen_ you since you decided to destroy the satellite! How could he have possibly caught you this time?

"Nevermind that," He took a step forward, and you flinched. He looked non-threatening with his hands stuffed in his pockets, but ever since that day with Flowey you'd always felt just a little on-edge around him. "Why are you doing this? Don't you want your soul back?" He sounded so disappointed in you. So sad...

Funny, you didn't feel anything.

In fact, it was shocking, how little you felt. All that mattered to you in that moment was your own survival, everything else was secondary. For the first time, you really felt like you didn't have a soul. Or was this just a self-fulfilling prophecy? Would you have felt this way, even if you didn't know you were soulless? An interesting philosophical question, but ultimately, it didn't matter to you.

"Not if it means you, or Undyne, or A-Alphys is going to kill me for it." You meant to speak coldly, deliberately, but you stumbled over Alphys' name. Despite the evidence against it, and even though you hadn't known her for long, a part of you didn't believe that Alphys had it in her to plot your death in such a manner. Sans? Maybe. But Alphys…

In your moment of hesitation, Sans took another step toward you. You jumped to awareness, pressing yourself against the satellite. It slid a little closer to the edge, and Sans jerked to a stop.

"Where the hell did you get that idea?" Sans sounded frustrated now, his eyes narrowing and shoulders stiffening.

"I overheard Alphys telling Undyne. She said you talked about it." While the tense conversation continued, you wondered if you'd be able to push the satellite hard enough to send it over the edge before Sans could stop you. Probably not, but you were already caught. It was worth a try…

"Okay, I'll be straight-forward with you… it came up. We talked about it. Both of us agreed right away that we weren't gonna let you get hurt. I…" He fidgeted, his smile more of a grimace, "I know, this is messed up. Whatever's goin' on with us. I don't honestly know what to think about you. You hurt a lot of people I care about, but you didn't do it on purpose. And you've been trying to fix it, up until now. I think… I could forgive you, and we can work on that once all of this is over. But if that's gonna happen, you've _got_ to stick with this plan. This is the only way I can start to trust you again. So, please, trust me, too?" Sans held out his hand and, for the first time in a while, you felt that familiar weight on your back. You could almost sense it hovering over your shoulder, watching, waiting to see what you would do.

With a great heave, you threw all of your strength into the satellite.

The large structure jerked toward the edge but, before it could fall to its demise, Sans used his magic to press you harmlessly against the floor of the roof. The sudden change in direction took the wind out of you but, now that you weren't fighting to stay upright, the press of magic on your back was far less painful than the last time you'd experienced it. What hurt more was tilting your head up to see the carefully closed-off look on Sans' face. He was standing directly over you now, and you seethed with frustration. He hadn't liked this plan in the first place. Why was he suddenly fighting so hard for it? You turned your head and saw that the satellite was close to falling. It just needed one more push...

"Right. Well. That's that, then." Sans sounded resigned, but you paid him no mind. Your hand shot out (Sans' magic didn't prevent you from moving laterally) and closed around your discarded cane. Before Sans could realize what you were doing, you swept it forward, taking him out at the ankles. He grunted and stumbled away from you. He didn't trip, which was what you'd been aiming for, but his fumble gave you enough time to crawl to the satellite and give it a final push.

"No!" Sans yelled and shot out his hand, catching the metal contraption with his blue magic. It didn't move back to safety, though; it just hovered there, tilting impossibly over the edge. You looked from the satellite to Sans, confused. The skeleton huffed with exertion, bringing his other hand up to clutch at his own outstretched arm. As sweat formed on his brow, you realized… he was tired. The satellite was too big and too heavy for him to move with magic. He was, essentially, stuck there, until he either got someone to help him move it, or let it drop.

You used your cane, still clutched in your hand, to push yourself to your feet. Your heart was pounding, even though you hadn't done anything particularly strenuous. You walked slowly over to Sans, who couldn't seem to tear his eyes off of the satellite to look at you. Still, there was no doubt who he was addressing when he spoke,

"Don't." He growled, teeth clenched and hands shaking. You moved behind him, cane tapping on the ground rhythmically. You knew what the logical thing to do was. _He only has 1 HP_ , The devil on your shoulder supplied helpfully, _He won't be able to come after you this way._ Staring at Sans' back as he struggled with the satellite brought you a heady sense of power. But… you decided you would just leave, instead. It was objectively the wrong choice, but this whole situation nagged at you, distantly. You would just have to leave, you supposed, and find somewhere to hide-

Suddenly, Sans spun around, grabbing you while you were in mid-thought. You yelped as he turned you around, twisting your wrist behind your back so that you dropped the cane. You couldn't see it anymore from your new position, but you heard a great _SPLASH!_ as the unfinished satellite was swallowed by the lava.

"Dammit!" Sans swore loudly as he held you. You struggled, but his boney fingers had a vice grip around your arms. "Why'd you have to do that?" He sounded more exasperated than angry, like you were a misbehaving pet and not a soulless human who'd just contemplated killing him. You threw your head back, trying to headbutt him in the hopes that he'd lose his grip on you, but he was too short for you to reach.

"Alright, c'mon." He pushed you forward, forcing you to walk. Your breath hitched. He was leading you to the edge of the roof… was he going to push you off? He wouldn't do that, would he? But, before you could ask, you found yourself in an entirely new, unfamiliar place. Right, you'd forgotten about his shortcuts.

"This is for your own good." Sans let go of you, and you spun around to face him. But, by the time you'd turned, he was already gone.


	16. Wish You Hell

A quick glance at your surroundings revealed that you did, in fact, know where you were, but that knowledge only served to piss you off even more. You were in the shed; the one that Papyrus "traps" you in when you lose to him in battle. You'd only been there once in the game, and it had given you a good laugh. It wasn't so funny, now.

Before, the bars had been wide enough for Frisk to slip past. But now, they were too close together for you to do anything more than stick your arm through the gaps in between. You wondered when and why that improvement was made, because the rest of the shed looked practically identical to how you remembered it. There was no note from Papyrus, but there was a lumpy dog bed, a full dog food bowl, and a bone. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust, as though no one had been in here for years.

The first thing you did was examine the windows, but they, too, were different now. In addition to the glass panes, two planks of wood formed a cross over each window; it seemed someone had boarded them up from the outside. Next, you gave an experimental tug at each of the bars, hoping that they would bend or jiggle or _something_. But they were all sturdy. You thought maybe you could try picking the lock, but then you realized… there was no lock. There was no door to this cell, just walls. The only way in or out was through Sans' shortcut.

You felt breathless, all of the sudden. Your hands shook, and you fisted them in your own hair just to give them something to hold on to. Your breath came in little, shallow bursts. The walls were closing in on you… you were so angry and scared. You felt like you had to do something, but there was just nothing you could do. Everything was so out of your control. You didn't know whether you wanted to cower or scream.

You chose the later, howling all of your fear and frustration to the empty space around you. Teeth clenched, you marched up to the food bowl and kicked it as hard as you could, sending dusty kibble flying in all directions. For a while, you huffed and puffed, pacing around the cell and seething with a rage you hadn't known you possessed.

You couldn't keep that up forever, though. After walking the length of your prison an indeterminate number of times, you ran out of steam. Breathing heavily through your nose, you slid down the wall opposite of the windows and leaned against the bars of your cage, sitting as close to the exit as you could possibly get. Still shaking, you pressed the palms of your hands into your eyes, groaning all the while.

"Sans, you're a piece of shit!" You spoke quite loudly, but your voice sounded muffled even to you. Sans probably wouldn't have heard you even if he'd been standing right outside the door. The place must've been well-insulated, which made sense considering how cold it was outside. No one would hear you scream, then. That was just perfect.

However, that thought gave you an idea. You stood up and crossed the room, eyes roving over the windows. Even though they were boarded up, you might benefit from breaking one. The shed wasn't too far off the beaten path… maybe someone would hear you if you shouted out the window.

There was a crack in the upper-left pane of the first window; you figured that was the one that would break the easiest. Hastily, you tugged off your shirt and wrapped it tightly around your fist. You hadn't been wearing anything under the pajama top, so you were glad there was no one around to see you half-naked. After taking a deep, steadying breath, you reeled back and punched the glass as hard as you could.

As it turned out, you needn't have put in so much effort. The cracked glass shattered easily, breaking into tiny pieces which you swept away with your protected hand. You had enough foresight to pick out a particularly large, sharp piece to hide underneath the dog food bowl you'd assaulted earlier. You didn't know what the hell you were going to do with a shard of glass, but you figured it would be smart to have a hidden weapon, just in case.

Once you were finished with that precaution, you tugged your shirt back on and stood on tip-toe at the window.

"HELP! CAN ANYBODY HEAR ME?!" You hollered as loud as you could. Luckily, there was no wind or snow to dampen the sound of your voice. "PAPYRUS! ARE YOU THERE?! HELP!" Maybe… just maybe Papyrus was at home and could hear the ruckus you were making. The thought of him coming to rescue you filled you with renewed hope. You screamed yourself hoarse yelling for him, keeping it up even after your voice started to crack.

You were in the middle of your shouting when suddenly, the door to the shed slammed open. You rushed to the bars but, to your dismay, it was not Papyrus who walked through.

"Shut. The hell. Up." Sans was breathing hard, as though he'd been running. He looked legitimately angry, as he so rarely did.

"Did he hear me?" You asked, feeling a little smug. You hadn't thought about it, but when Papyrus did find out that Sans was keeping you prisoner… well, that was bound to be an awkward conversation. You'd disapproved of Sans keeping Papyrus in the dark with everything that was going on, so getting Sans to fess up to his own lies felt like sweet revenge.

Sans said nothing to that, but the way he stomped out and slammed the door behind him was enough of an answer. Pleased with yourself, you retreated to the corner farthest away from the broken window. You hadn't anticipated how cold it would get once you broke the fragile barrier between the shed and the outside world, but soon your short-sleeved shirt and pajama pants weren't going to be enough to keep you warm. As you waited for whatever was going to happen next, you pulled the dog bed over to your spot on the floor and covered yourself with it. It functioned poorly as a blanket, but it was better than nothing.

After a few minutes of silence, Sans entered the shed again, now considerably calmer. He still looked peeved, but at least he wasn't slamming things anymore. He simply stared at you for a moment, arms crossed. You stood up, but kept your distance.

"You really like to cause trouble, don't you?" You didn't know what to say to that, so you just shrugged. You weren't necessarily _trying_ to cause trouble; you were just doing whatever it took to survive. Wouldn't anyone have done the same?

Sans sighed, his shoulders slumping, "Papyrus wants to see you. But there's a few ground rules before I let him in here." You scoffed a little at that; since when did Sans _let_ Papyrus do anything? Sans didn't see your expression, though, since he had turned around and was dragging a step ladder out from the corner of the shed. He stood up on the top step and started fiddling with something on the wall. Curious, you took a few steps forward, wrapping your hands around the bars and craning your neck to try and see what he was up to. "First of all, there's this." He hopped off of the ladder and stepped aside to let you see. You frowned when you realized that he'd affixed a small camera to the wall and had it pointed at your cell.

"Kinky." You joked dryly, but Sans didn't rise to the bait. He must've been serious about this, if he wasn't even going to try to make a good comeback.

"Second, you're not allowed to tell him about the basement." You shrugged noncommittally, and he narrowed his eyes at you, crossing his arms. "Well?"

"Yeah, yeah, fine!" You agreed petulantly, letting go of the bars to cross your own arms as well. You hadn't even thought about the basement, and didn't get why Sans was so sensitive about it all of the sudden. But, whatever… you had no intention of telling Papyrus about that particular secret.

"You're not really inspiring confidence, kid." You snorted derisively. Sans was lucky you were playing along with this at all. You didn't have to agree to any conditions; you had faith that, now that Papyrus knew you were here, he would find some way to see you, with or without Sans' permission. The camera was the only problematic part, since you couldn't exactly convince Papyrus to break you out of here if Sans was constantly watching. Still, though, even if it didn't lead to your escape, all of the shouting and breaking windows had been worth it just to spend some time with a friendly face.

"One last thing…" Sans took a step closer, his eyes almost completely dark, "Don't even try to convince my brother to let you out, or I'll put an end to this real quick. There are much less pleasant places I could lock you up, so if you start trying to… to _woo_ him, I'll make sure you never get visitors again." Your mouth fell open. You couldn't believe what you were hearing.

" _Woo_ him? Are you _kidding_ me?!" That got your blood boiling, and you clenched your hands into fists at your sides, "Is that what you think I did to you? Because I wouldn't have even _considered_ going out with you if you hadn't been trying to jump my bones since the minute I fell down this miserable hole!" Now that you got going, you couldn't stop. Every time Sans opened his mouth lately, it just sent you into a feedback loop of anger. "I never even wanted to stay with you! I wanted to get the fuck out of this place from the moment I got here, and _you're_ the one who kept me from doing that! At least now I'm trying to do something about my fucking problems, unlike you!" Even you weren't totally sure where this was coming from. At the end of your rant, Sans' placid grin dropped and his eyes went black.

"You don't know what you're talking about." You must've exposed a nerve. Good.

"Uh, newsflash! I do! You're the only one who can remember the resets, but all you ever do is sit around and wait for the next one. Twelve playthroughs, and never once did you even ask Frisk about what was going on! Didn't you ever think, 'Huh, maybe I should get off my ass and actually do something different next time'? Because, maybe, if you hadn't just laid down and let everyone die, _none of this would have ever happened!_ " Sans took a half-step toward you, then visibly composed himself, turned around, and walked away. You were more than a little disappointed, but not surprised. "Yeah, sure, just ignore the problem. Typical!" Your parting comment caused him to stall at the exit. Even from your position in the cell, you could see how tightly he was holding the doorknob, and half-expected it to splinter in his hand. His shoulders rose and fell as he took a deep breath.

"You're not yourself right now. Talk to me again when you get your soul back..." He looked over his shoulder, his eyes still pitch black, "... you freak." With that, the door shut, and you were alone again.

"Ugh!" You shouted incomprehensibly, starting up your pacing again with renewed vigor. You were so done with all of this. You just wanted to go home, soul or no soul. And screw the monsters; they could all rot forever in the Underground for all you cared.

As you thought that, the door to the shed opened again, revealing a… pile of blankets?

"Human!? Are you there? I cannot see over the gifts I brought you!" Just like that, all of your anger melted away.

"Yeah, I'm here." Papyrus squealed happily, dropping the pile of stuff on the floor so that he could run over to you, sticking both arms through the gaps between the prison bars and giving you an unexpected and slightly awkward hug.

"I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE MISSED YOU SO MUCH!" His yelling was very loud right next to your ears, but you didn't mind in the least. Nor did you care that his hug was bone-crushing in strength; you simply responded by squeezing the life out of him, in return.

"I missed you too!" And it was completely, one-hundred percent, true. It had only been a little over a week since you last saw him, but after spending every single waking moment with the guy for months, a week seemed like an awfully long time.

"YOU RAN AWAY! AND I THOUGHT YOU'D GOTTEN LOST AND I WOULD NEVER SEE YOU AGAIN! BUT NOW HERE YOU ARE! UNDYNE WAS VERY ANGRY WHEN YOU RAN AWAY, and now Sans is very angry too…" He seemed to lose steam toward the end of his disjointed explanation of everything you'd missed while you'd been gone. He was quiet for a moment before breaking your embrace, holding your shoulders out at arms-length. His voice was significantly softer when he spoke again, "Sans said you lost your soul? And you haven't had one this whole time? Is that true?" You cringed. You really, _really_ did not want to disappoint Papyrus. But you'd given Sans so much shit for lying to his brother, you couldn't very well do the same.

"Yeah, it's true. I'm sorry… I didn't kn-ah!" To your surprise, Papyrus hugged you again, crushing you against the bars of the prison.

"Fear not, human! We will retrieve your soul for you in no time! Until then, I believe you can be a good person! Because you have been a very great friend so far, even without your soul, so why stop now?" You felt a little choked up and, to your horror, you felt tears gather in your eyes. In another time, you'd killed this guy. You knew what he sounded like when he died. Though you didn't completely blame yourself for what had happened in the game, you knew enough to be certain that you didn't deserve this much kindness from him.

"Thanks, Papyrus. I'll try my best." Feeling a little uncomfortable with how nice he was being to you, you ducked out of Papyrus' arms. He let you go and gave you an encouraging smile.

"Nyeh heh heh! I know you will!" He gave you one last pat on the head with his gloved hand before backing away, nearly tripping over one of the blankets he'd abandoned on the ground. "Oh yes! I almost forgot... I brought presents!" With that, Papyrus proceeded to enthusiastically stuff everything he brought you through the bars one by one. You could barely keep up with all of the comfort items being stuffed in your face, including but not limited to: a tupperware container full of spaghetti (but no fork to eat it with), an action figure, and a number of blankets including one you recognized that came from Papyrus' own bed. Once all of the gifts had been moved from the floor outside of the cell to the floor inside of the cell, Papyrus held up a finger and dug in the folds of his scarf.

"And last but not least…!" With a flourish, he revealed the last present he'd been hiding. It was none other than the Rubix cube Sans had gotten for the two of you ages ago. You took it from Papyrus with care that bordered on reverence.

"Thank you. This really means a lot." You looked out over all of your new creature comforts, then back at Papyrus. The cell with no door didn't feel so small, anymore. You sat down against the wall and held the cube up to your friend, reaching between the bars to hand it back to him.

"Mix it up for me? Make sure it's a good one." The skeleton's face lit up as he snatched the puzzle away from you.

"Of course! I won't go easy on you!" He plunked himself down next to you, your shoulders touching, as he put his best effort into scrambling the cube to perfection. You smiled faintly as you watched him, feeling more optimistic in this cold, dark shed than you had ever felt at Alphys' lab.


	17. This Probably Won't End Well

It had been exactly seven minutes since Papyrus had gone back to bed, so Sans figured he was in the clear. Carefully, he cracked open the door to his brother's bedroom, peering inside. To his relief, Papyrus was, indeed, asleep. Even though he didn't sleep much, when he did lay down, Paps slept like the dead. He never half-assed anything, unlike Sans, who slept too damn much and was somehow still always tired. Papyrus' deep sleeping habits were easily exploitable; usually in the form of a prank but, in this case, Sans made use of this time by booting up Papyrus' computer, confident that his brother wouldn't wake up and question him about it.

As the machine warmed up, Sans turned around and watched Papyrus sleep. The light from the monitor bathed his prone form in a blue glow. Papyrus' face was wrinkled a little in sleep, making him look like he was scowling. Sans wondered if Paps could unconsciously sense his presence, and was disgusted by it. Despite the fact that Papyrus constantly scolded him for leaving his room dirty and sleeping on the job, he and Sans rarely actually fought with each other. Today, though… today had been a bad one.

Sans sighed and dragged a hand down his face wearily. Papyrus had been woken by your cries for help and had been frantic to save you. He was subsequently furious with Sans when he'd found out he'd been the one to lock you up in the first place. Sans' explanation didn't help any, either. No one appreciated being lied to, including Papyrus. You'd been right; Sans should've been honest with Papyrus about your situation from the beginning. And he really, really hated admitting that you'd been right about anything.

The computer played a soft, familiar tune when it was done booting up, pulling Sans out of his own thoughts. He clacked away on the keyboard, glancing over his shoulder every now and then to check that Papyrus was still asleep. Eventually, he reached a program that was buried deep in layers upon layers of folders with silly, punny names. It was, after all, Papyrus' computer, so the best way for Sans to hide anything personal from his nosey brother was to bury it behind a wall of puns. This particular program was important enough to password-protect, too, so it took an extra step before Sans was finally able to open it.

Immediately, a live video feed filled up the entire screen, drenching the room in near-blackness again. Thanks to Alphys, Sans had multiple cameras strewn throughout Snowdin that he could monitor at will, plus a few in Waterfall and Hotland. Now, though, he was only interested in one; the camera he'd set up in the shed. Papyrus didn't own a computer chair (it promoted laziness, apparently), so Sans knelt down and laid his head on his arms, eyes glued to the screen.

Earlier that night, he'd watched you diligently for hours, making sure you never hurt his brother or broke either of the two rules he'd laid down for you. It was a good thing you never did because, despite his big talk, he really didn't have anywhere else he could've kept you captive. But, luckily, you'd been perfectly pleasant to Paps, quietly solving your cube-shaped puzzle over and over again as you listened to Papyrus ramble about all of the episodes of Mettaton's shows you'd missed. Sans was glad you hadn't been mean, but also maybe a little bit annoyed. This way, Papyrus still thought you were a perfect little angel, and Sans was still the bad guy. It was frustrating.

He'd had to stop watching you once Papyrus grew tired and announced to you that he was going back home to sleep, but it didn't seem like you'd done much in that time. Foregoing the dog bed, you'd made a little nest for yourself out of the piles of blankets Papyrus had insisted on bringing you. You actually looked pretty comfortable, curled up with your back to the camera. Sans couldn't see your face, but he figured you were already asleep what with the lack of movement, save for the gentle rising and falling of your chest.

Sans sighed a little as he watched, his own eyes drooping. Papyrus had made him feel a bit bad about trapping you in the shed, but after hearing your little shouting match and seeing how relaxed you looked now, he didn't feel so guilty anymore. He'd been torn on the issue at first, but after tonight, he was certain that the person sleeping in his shed wasn't really you. Your soullessness raised questions that might have been interesting to a philosopher but, as far as Sans was concerned, he'd never even met the real you. That black-and-white way of looking at it made the things you'd said to him more bearable, if only a little. As he watched you sleep, he wondered what you'd think of him when you did get your soul back… if you'd be sorry for all of the lying and deceiving you'd done.

Or maybe you wouldn't be any different. After all, there were plenty of humans who did horrible things even with their souls firmly in their bodies. Maybe you were just a scummy person, with or without a soul. But then, Sans remembered something you'd said on the date (Just the thought of that night made him taste bile in the back of his throat. Those memories had been sweet for a while, but every moment he'd spent with you was soured for him now.). You'd talked about your ex, and how they'd left you for being emotionless. Maybe losing your soul was what had caused that change, and only your ex had picked up on it. Maybe.

Regardless, Sans was determined to remake that damned satellite and get your soul back in your body. He was more motivated to finish this than he'd been to do anything in a long time. Even his work on the time machine had been half-hearted at best; his will to finish it diminished by all of the resets constantly undoing his progress. He needed to make you whole again, just to prove that he'd been right when he saw something worth saving in you on that day he'd found you dying in the snow. He needed to prove that you could be a good person, once you weren't missing such a crucial part of yourself, so that he could justify how much he cared about you.

… God, he was such a sucker, wasn't he? He was just setting himself up for disappointment. But he couldn't stop himself. He didn't have that kind of self-control.

Sans was pulled from his self-depreciating thoughts by a soft noise coming from the monitor. He focused on the live feed, straining to hear what was going on. It had sounded like a voice and, now that he was paying attention to the screen, he saw that you were shifting around under the covers. As he watched, you made the noise again. It was a desperate little whimper that tore at Sans' heart, despite how hard he was trying to distance himself from you. He recognized the sounds of a nightmare, and was torn. A strange, protective part of him wanted to run to you and calm you down, an instinct probably left over from being a big brother. But he didn't think you would appreciate his help at the moment. Plus, he reminded himself, he didn't want you to think he was concerned for your well-being. You could easily use that information against him, and Sans was utterly done with being used by you. So he forced himself to stay in place, watching from a distance as your thrashing intensified. The only action he took was to turn down the volume, ensuring that your cries would not wake Papyrus.

Eventually, you awoke of your own accord, panting and glistening with sweat. You looked around wildly, confused by your strange surroundings, and started rubbing your own arms in a self-soothing manner. You hummed to yourself, but the tune was unfamiliar to Sans.

When it seemed like you were successfully calming yourself down, Sans closed out of the video feed and turned off the computer. Why was he watching this? There was nothing for him to gain, here. He rubbed a tired hand over his face, his knees creaking as he stood up. He had better things to do… like breaking the bad news to Alphys that they would have to start all over on the satellite, this time with only two pairs of hands. It was a shame; it had seemed like Alphys had been growing attached to you. Sans knew he should've put a stop to that. He'd known Alphys would just end up getting hurt by you, and he'd been right. Stupid of him, to let the two of you grow close.

 _Well, there's nothing I can do about it now._ The selfish thought relieved him of responsibility and calmed his nerves. Alphys would just have to deal with the disappointment. Before he left the room, Sans spared one last glance for his brother. He just hoped to god that you wouldn't betray Papyrus, too.


	18. Appointment in Samarra

Time spent in the shed passed slowly. Keeping track of the days as they inched by wasn't terribly difficult; you could see the passage of day and night out the windows, and you trusted Papyrus to keep his visits on a precise schedule, as he did with all parts of his life. But knowing the time didn't make it pass any easier. Papyrus was with you often… the majority of the day, in fact. But even Papyrus quickly lost his entertainment value when all the two of you could do together was talk and pass the Rubix cube back and forth.

It was only four days before the two of you exhausted all of the "safe" conversation topics, and the awkward questions started cropping up. Namely, the question of how, exactly, one managed to lose their own soul.

"Look, Papyrus… I don't want to lie to you anymore, so I won't make anything up. But I just can't tell you." Your fingers fidgeted with the puzzle in your hands. Papyrus had seemed reluctant to ask you, but you knew it was going to come up eventually and had planned what you were going to say. "It's not that-"

"Did my brother tell you not to tell me?" Papyrus interrupted and sounded disdainful, in a way that he never used to sound when talking about Sans. It felt very wrong to your ears, and for a second you almost wished you could reset just so that Papyrus wouldn't have to remember having this fight with his brother.

You bit the inside of your cheek, and the skeleton took your hesitation as an answer. "I knew it! Why is Sans so determined to keep me in the dark?! I'm not a kid anymore…" He grumbled petulantly and crossed his arms in a way that made him seem very kid-like, indeed. "He never tells me where he goes or what he's doing. I just wish he trusted me."

"Sorry, Paps." You patted his shoulder through the bars awkwardly, feeling like garbage. You weren't _really_ lying; there were certain things Sans had forbidden you from telling Papyrus. But the stuff about the resets and the video game was not one of those things. The tale of how you'd sold your soul was complicated and you just didn't want to go through the process of explaining it again. You'd told yourself you weren't going to lie about it, though, and yet here you were.

Well, it wasn't going to matter soon, anyway. As soon as Sans and Alphys rebuilt the satellite, you were going to die, and it wouldn't make any difference what Papyrus thought of you.

You had nothing better to do while you sat in your cell, so you had a lot of time to think about your imminent death. You were certain that, even on the off chance that Sans hadn't been planning to kill you before, he definitely was now. He trusted you about as much as you trusted him, which was to say, not at all. You wondered, then, if he would absorb your soul himself, or if he'd let Undyne do it. And what would _that_ be like? Would you be conscious at all? Would you have any control? Or would you just be a passenger, trapped in someone else's body? That scared you, more than the possibility of just disappearing.

"I tried to convince Sans to let you go, but he wouldn't." Papyrus interrupted your thoughts, his face twisted into a sad expression that didn't suit him. "But you're being so good! You haven't done anything wrong! I don't understand…"

"Yeah, I have." You sighed, looking down at your lap while Papyrus stared at you. "They - uh, Sans is… trying to get my soul back. But I tried to stop him."

"Why?!" Papyrus cried out, and you winced. Sans really hadn't told him anything about what was going on, had he?

"Papyrus, what do you think's gonna happen if he does?" You waited patiently as your friend thought this through and, to your surprise, he caught on rather quickly. Maybe he wasn't quite as naive as you'd always thought.

"No! I'll protect you and your soul from Undyne! I won't let you get captured! Even though, you kind of already are…" You smiled at his proclamation, but shook your head.

"That's nice of you, but eventually someone would get to me. There's nothing you can do." Papyrus stood up suddenly, and you yelped as he grabbed your arm and pulled you with him.

"Don't say that, human! I, The Great Papyrus, have never failed at anything, and I never will!" It seemed that, the bleaker the situation looked, the more animated Papyrus became. "Do not worry! I will have a very stern conversation with Sans. He will agree to help me protect you from Undyne, and then we will get your soul back and you will be safe and whole again. That way, no one has to be angry with anyone! Even he cannot avoid seeing reason in the face of my irrefutable logic!" With that, Papyrus cackled, and bounded out the door.

"No, wait-!" You called after your friend, but the door had already slammed behind him. You groaned and buried your head in your hands. Did this count as trying to persuade Papyrus to free you? You looked up at the camera, nervously replaying the conversation you'd just had to judge how damning it may have sounded.

"I'm not trying get him to do anything!" You yelled at the camera, just in case Sans was listening, "He's doing this on his own, I swear!" You sighed and plopped back down on the floor, crossing your arms over your knees and laying your head on them as you waited for punishment.

But, no one came. You waited in silence until the sun began to set, but Papyrus never came back and Sans never burst into the shed to scold you. You began to worry as the night wore on; had something happened? You hated not knowing. Your anxiety was compounded by the fact that you had nothing else to keep you busy. Papyrus had taken the Rubix cube with him, probably forgetting that he had been holding it in his hurry to leave. You tried occupying your mind by drawing pictures on the floor with pieces of kibble from the dog food bowl, but quickly abandoned the game as being too weird. You considered spelling out something rude with the kibble for Sans to see on the camera, but decided that was too petty, even for you.

Instead, you paced. You would've kept it up all night, had your legs allowed it. But, as it was, you collapsed around midnight, sore legs twitching restlessly as you wished for something to occupy your mind.

You fell asleep around dawn and, when you woke up sometime in the afternoon, everything was still the same. You still had the same amount of water and food (in the form of tupperware containers full of spaghetti, since Papyrus seemed to be the only one concerned about feeding you) so, as far as you could tell, no one had been by to check up on you in the morning. You stood up to start pacing again, then stopped mid-step. What if no one ever came back? You had a lot of food, so you weren't concerned about starving. But one bottle of water was not going to last you long. You were already thirsty, but you didn't dare drink any of it until you were really desperate. And you'd better not expend any unnecessary energy, in case you sweated and wasted your limited resources.

You were already thinking about how you could've clawed your way out of the shed when the door opened at last.

"Finally! Where've you…" You'd expected to see Papyrus or Sans, but instead, it was Alphys who stood in the doorway. Her tail drooped low and she had deep bags under her eyes. She looked like she was about to drop from exhaustion at any moment, and yet there was a slightly crazed look in her eyes that suggested otherwise. Her appearance only made you more worried than you'd been before.

"Alphys, what's wrong?" Cautiously, you approached the bars, and Alphys snapped to attention.

"What? Oh! Nothing, I just haven't taken a shower yet. Or slept." Her stutter was completely gone, and she talked faster than normal. You suspected that she'd consumed copious amounts of coffee, judging by the way her claws were trembling. You waited patiently as she cleared her throat and took a deep breath, "Actually, I've been working on the satellite all night. With Sans, Papyrus, and Undyne. It's done." You gritted your teeth. So you told Papyrus what would happen if you got your soul back, and then he went out and helped them all make it happen. You really hadn't expected to be betrayed by him, of all people. But you supposed it was just par for the course, at this point. "Undyne started a drive in the Underground, paying people to send in any aluminum they could find. It went pretty fast after that. And then Papyrus came by yesterday and encouraged us to finish it overnight. He's a… really good motivator." You crossed your arms. Yeah, you could've pictured it. All of them gathered around, working together to bring about your end. But that still left the question of…

"Why are you here? If it's done, it's done. Just get it over with." Alphys wrung her hands, and you felt a burst of hope. Something was wrong, which was good news for you.

"W-well, we, ah, connected to what we think is your computer," You didn't know how they could've managed that. Magic? "B-but we… don't know what to do now." You were confused. Now that they had the giant satellite, couldn't they just connect to the internet and look up how to get rid of the necessary files? But, as you thought about it, you realized; the monsters had never been exposed to the human internet. They didn't know how to search things on Google, or even _what_ they were supposed to be searching. You'd told them the name of the game, but that was all they knew about it.

You laughed, and it sounded bitter even to your own ears. "If you think I'm gonna help you, you've got another thing coming!" Alphys' face twisted in sadness and… remorse? Your laughter died away.

"You heard me talking to Undyne, right?" She continued before you could answer. "Well, I- I know you probably won't believe me, but I was just saying that to get her to agree to this. I-I'd like to think y-you and I are… friends? We've both done some kind of gross things, n-no offense, but I just thought we… got each other? I didn't - I never wanted to… you know." Alphys made a vague hand motion that you weren't sure how to interpret. "And I don't think Sans did, either. Or, if he did, h-he didn't tell me. He's been working really hard, you should've seen him last night…" You held up a hand, and Alphys trailed off, her tail twitching with nervous, caffeine-induced energy.

"Just, stop. Whatever speech you had prepared to convince me to help you, I don't want to hear it." Alphys' face fell, but you weren't quite done yet. Now that you were thinking about it, you realized; this might've been the perfect opportunity. Everyone seemed hell-bent on getting you your soul back, whether out of the goodness of their hearts or for more sinister reasons. You were confident they'd figure out how to work a search engine eventually, and then they'd finish the job and do whatever they'd planned on doing with you. If the outcome was the same, why not offer your help? With a few conditions, of course.

"I'll do it. But I want to talk to Undyne and Sans first. At the same time." Alphys looked shocked. She pushed up her glasses and nodded.

"O-oh! Of course! I d-don't see why not… I'll g-go get them!" With that, she hurried out of the shed. While you were alone, you had a moment to think about what you were going to say (and sweep all of the kibble into the corner with your foot, because who was going to take you seriously when you kept stepping on crunchy pieces of old dog food?). You peeked under the food bowl to reassure yourself that the glass shard was still there. The odds were high that Undyne was going to get royally pissed at you, and you wouldn't have put it past her to bend back the cell bars and come at you if she got really riled up. You would've liked to think that Sans would stop her if it came to that, but you were glad to have a backup plan, if that wasn't the case.

Only a few minutes passed before the door opened again, with more force than last time. You fought back a flinch as Undyne barged in, with Sans trailing behind her. Undyne looked utterly exhausted, with her ponytail half-falling-out and with dark bags under her eyes. But even so, she exuded raw energy that cut an intimidating figure in the dim light of the shed. Sans, on the other hand, showed his exhaustion in the slump of his shoulders and the way he kept to the edge of the room, leaning on the wall farthest from you.

"So? What is it?" Undyne crossed her arms, puffing out her chest. She was clearly not happy to have been summoned by the soulless abomination, so you got right to the point.

"Alphys probably already told you… I'm willing to help you guys. Provided you meet my conditions." Undyne sneered at you, but Sans looked impassive. You ignored him for now, instead focusing on the giant, imposing fish-woman who towered over you on the other side of the bars.

"What 'conditions'?" You gnashed your teeth, forcing yourself to hold your ground and not take a reflexive step back.

"Well, the first one is obvious. You have to promise not to kill me and take my soul after I get it back." Undyne tipped her head back and roared with laughter.

"Are you crazy?! I didn't come this far just to let you go on your merry way! Everyone's counting on me to free them! If you think I'm going to pass up this opportunity, you're dead wrong." You had to hand it to her, at least she wasn't trying to deceive you. She was upfront about her intentions, which was more than you could say about some people…

"We're going to free them, just not by killing anyone. Including me." Calmly, you stood your ground, whereas Undyne only became more agitated.

"HA! That's rich, coming from you! Alphys told me about what you did. You killed everyone with that Under-thing!" You would've laughed at her misunderstanding of the game had you not been quickly losing your patience.

"Oh, like you're any better? You go around, killing kids, and saying it's for the greater good… what an excuse! You haven't even tried looking for another way! When Alphys suggested the satellite the first time, you shot her down. You'd rather do things the easy way than the right way." Undyne's expression grew more terrifying the longer you talked. The bars between the two of you were the only things bolstering your confidence. "But that's gonna weigh on you eventually, if it hasn't started already. Trust me." You thought, for a moment, that you could see a familiar, black shape peering over Undyne's shoulder. But you blinked, and the moment was over. Undyne shivered and looked unsettled, as though she had felt it, too. But she recovered quickly, her ear-fins flaring menacingly.

"What do _you_ know?! You're a soulless freak!" She sneered, baring her pointed teeth at you.

"It takes one to know one!" You snapped back. Undyne slammed her hand into the bars, making them rattle violently. You _did_ flinch that time, and Sans finally spoke up.

"Hey." You'd nearly forgotten about Sans, lingering in the shadows. He sounded quiet and nonchalant, but, to your surprise, Undyne listened to him. She threw an unreadable glance at Sans, then whirled back to face you with a finger pointed in your face.

"Screw you, and screw your conditions. My friends and I are gonna figure this out… without you!" She let out one last, frustrated "Nghaaa!" before leaving the shed, slamming the door shut hard enough that it rattled the foundation of the building. An awkward silence fell between you and Sans before he pushed himself away from the wall, stepping into the light that shone from the window.

"You could've handled that better." He said, bluntly, but you shook your head.

"Actually, I think I handled that pretty well. She was never gonna agree with me, but at least I said what I wanted to say. I'm not sure if re-souled me will have the guts, so better to get it out now." Sans raised a bony brow at that.

"So you're still gonna help us? Even after that?" He sounded so hopeful, despite how tired he looked. Alphys was right; he really had been working hard on the satellite, hadn't he? You wondered why he was so invested in this all of the sudden, but pushed it to the back of your mind to worry about later.

"There's still conditions. You'll have to promise to protect me from _her_ , of course." You jerked your head to the door Undyne had disappeared out of. Sans shrugged,

"Sure." You didn't really like that answer, but you let it slide. The last condition was of greater importance, anyway.

"And… Papyrus has to be there. For the re-souling, and for as long as I think is necessary after that. He's not gonna leave my side." Sans frowned, then his mouth twisted into a jeer.

"You want to use my brother as a living shield." You shrugged.

"If you want to put it like that. Point is, Papyrus likes me. He's the only person I trust in this godforsaken hole in the ground. And besides… even if I don't trust you, I know you won't kill Papyrus' friend right in front of him." You leaned against the wall, hands in your pockets. You felt pretty smug about this plan. After all, you knew from other timelines that, when Papyrus' friends are killed, Sans never actually tells him the truth. He just says that they went on "vacation." Maybe Papyrus couldn't protect you all on his own, but Sans would never let you die if he knew it would hurt his brother. The short skeleton himself, however, didn't seem to see the brilliance of your plan. He just looked tired.

"Fine. It doesn't matter, because I wasn't planning on hurting you, anyway. You'll see that once you get your soul back." You didn't really know how to respond to that. It made you uncomfortable to think that you'd be a different person once all of this was said and done. Would you look back on all of this differently, once you had a soul? You hoped not. You thought you had a pretty good grasp on things right now; you didn't want all of that ruined by whatever unwelcome emotions you might have later.

"Well… don't count on it." You cautioned Sans, giving him a wary look. He wasn't doing all of this out of some weird sense of gallantry, was he? If he expected you to throw yourself at his feet and beg for forgiveness once you had a soul... well, he was only setting himself up for disappointment.

Suddenly, Sans disappeared before your eyes. You startled when you heard a quiet voice over your shoulder.

"I won't." You turned around just in time to see Sans take your arm in his bony hand. You barely managed not to trip as he pulled you forward through a shortcut. With that, the two of you vanished without a trace, leaving the shed empty once again.


	19. The Anomaly

You blinked, and you were back on the roof of the lab, with Sans' tight grip on your arm keeping you from stumbling straight off the edge. Your heart leapt in your chest, startled as you were by the sudden change in scenery and temperature.

"A little warning would've been been nice!" Your voice was a little higher-pitched than usual. If you weren't mistaken, you thought you saw the corner of Sans' mouth twitch into a mischievous grin. You narrowed your eyes at him, unamused.

"Wait here. I'm going to make sure Undyne's not in the lab." Sans let go of you and backed away, keeping his eyes on you until he disappeared through another shortcut. You huffed, letting out a breath you hadn't known you were holding.

Once you recovered from the teleportation, you took a look around. The roof had changed drastically since the last time you'd seen it. The satellite was back, and better than ever. It stuck up out of the roof from a steel pole, which anchored it to the building securely. A fine mesh covered the aluminum skeleton of the dish, with wires running from the antenna in the center to some kind of electrical box at the base. You walked around the massive structure, a little proud of how well-built it looked despite the fact that you'd had nothing to do with the construction of this one. It looked a little silly to have a giant satellite dish pointed up at the bare, rocky ceiling of the cave, but you guessed that whatever magic Alphys had used allowed its signal to reach beyond whatever physical barriers stood in its way. Or, inter-dimensional barriers, as it were.

You waited for quite some time before Sans finally reappeared. It had taken him a suspiciously long time just to check to see if Undyne was here, but you decided against questioning him on it. You'd never seen him look as tired or as serious as he looked now.

"Follow me." You obeyed, but hesitantly. Some instinctive part of your brain feared that he was leading you into a trap, but, when you came out the other side of his shortcut, you were merely in the main room of Alphys' lab.

"HUMAN!" Suddenly, you were embraced by a familiar pair of bony arms. You let out a quiet wheeze as they squeezed the life out of you. "I AM SO SORRY I DIDN'T RETURN! I was just so excited to help build the machine… I had the very important job of holding the wires! Without The Great Papyrus, none of this would have been possible!" You had a feeling Papyrus had been more of a hinderance than a help, but he seemed blissfully unaware of that. You patted his arm as he hugged you, hoping he'd get the message that you wanted to be released. Instead, he only squeezed you tighter. "AND NOW SANS SAYS I GET TO BE YOUR BODYGUARD! IT'S GOING TO BE SO MUCH FUN!" Your nose reflexively scrunched up as he shouted in your ear.

"Y-yeah, Paps. You're not gonna leave me alone, are you?" You glanced over at Sans, who was frowning.

"YOU CAN NEVER ESCAPE THE GREAT PAPYRUS! NYEH HEH HEH!" With that, he dropped you back to your feet, giving you a fond pat on the head. "See, human? You will be completely safe, just like I said!"

"Thanks, Papyrus." You rubbed your own arm, which was probably bruised from your friend's enthusiastic hug.

"Of course! So… now what?" Glancing around, you saw that Alphys was standing off to the side, and she and the brothers were looking at you expectantly.

"Oh, um, can I use your computer?" You asked Alphys, who nodded and gestured helplessly to the screen. When you got close enough, you saw that she had your own computer files pulled up. The familiarity gave you an instant sense of calm. You knew your way around a computer, especially when it was your own. With the three monsters hovering over your shoulder, you took the old-fashioned ball mouse in your hand and got to work.

As you navigated closer to the file you needed to delete, you started to feel a deep sense of foreboding. By the time you double-clicked on the folder named " .undertale," you could feel something crackling in the air. It reminded you of the time you'd almost been struck by lightning as a kid; like there was pure energy surrounding you, making your hair stand on end.

"Well… this is the one. I just have to delete it." You highlighted the file that was named "system_information_963." Now that you were here, it seemed way too simple. How could a text file, containing only one byte of information, hold the key to your soul? But the way that your hands shook, coupled with the tingling feeling on the back of your neck, seemed to shine a spotlight on this moment. It just _felt_ like something important was about to happen, and it scared you that you couldn't logically explain why.

Looking at the others, you could tell they felt it too. Sans was very still, but his eyes were entirely black as he stared, fixedly, at your cursor on the computer monitor. Papyrus' gaze flickered back and forth between you and the computer, his fingers twitching at his sides. When he saw that you were staring at him, he gave you a weak smile and a thumbs-up. Alphys had grabbed a fistful of her own lab coat, twisting it nervously in her hands. She smiled at you, too, not bothering to fix her glasses which hung precariously off the end of her snout.

"G-go ahead… it'll all work out." It was hard to believe her with the static energy buzzing in your ears, but you nodded anyway. This was going to happen; there was no turning back now. Might as well just get it over with.

With bated breath, you deleted the file.

…

Nothing happened.

You looked from Sans, to Papyrus, to Alphys, but they all just stared at you expectantly. You looked back at the computer to confirm that you'd deleted the right thing. Maybe you needed to empty the recycle bin? You did so, fumbling around for a moment as you tried to find it on the ancient computer. The file was completely gone from the harddrive, but still, there was nothing. You waited for another minute, before breaking the tense silence.

"Uh, I don't think it worked. I don't feel any-" Suddenly, your breath was taken away. You felt a sharp kick in your chest and, for a split second, you were blinded by an intense, lavender light.

After that quick moment of pain came a steady buildup of… _something_. You couldn't place it, but it was there, solidly, starting in your heart and pumping sluggishly through the rest of your body. It very quickly became overwhelming, like something was simultaneously pressing you down into the ground and throwing you into space. Your head pounded, and your body trembled with the effort to contain it. Your existence narrowed down until it became just you and this… _thing_ , trying to crush you. Or burst out from you. You couldn't decide which.

"No… stop… stop…" You gasped and retched as you fought it. But it kept beating in time with your heart, strangling you. "...stop stop stop stopstopstop…" The parasite wound its way around your very being, seeping from your arteries into your marrow. Confused and terrified, you tried to claw it out and hold it in at the same time, to no effect. Surely, you were dying. This was what death felt like. Or was it rebirth…?

"STOP!" Immediately, something clicked into place. Three times, in fact. The lilac glow was back, but softer this time. The feeling of being suffocated was still there, but it seemed, somehow, more manageable. Slowly, you became aware of your own surroundings. Like, for example, the fact that you were screaming.

You were so startled by your own noise that you cut yourself off abruptly. You weren't prone to screaming, and the fact that it sounded so primal and foreign startled you enough to distract from whatever was going on. You started to notice more things… like that your eyes were shut tightly and that you were sitting on the floor, your back against a wall. It was unclear to you what had happened or how, but you felt calm enough now to try and figure it out.

You started by opening your eyes, then wincing when the purple light grew stronger. Squinting against the pulsing glow, you struggled to make sense of it. The harsh, gasping breaths you had been taking calmed to a more regular rhythm as you let yourself be soothed by the light. The more you relinquished control, the less frightened you felt. You were downright tranquil by the time you realized the source of the glow was shaped like a heart, hovering a meter or so away from your chest.

You reached out your hand reflexively, trying to touch it. But you flinched away when you felt warmth radiating from the heart. _My soul..._ You thought with wonder, and were filled with… something. It wasn't as unpleasant as the first time, and you felt at peace at the same time as you felt steadfast. Like you could make it through anything.

The intense discomfort from only moments earlier was entirely gone, and you felt deeply contented.

Suddenly, in your peripheral vision, something moved. Your calm was shattered. You jerked away from the movement, heart leaping in your chest. What you now recognized as your soul moved closer to your chest as you shielded it with a protective hand. Your world expanded, to include the three figures standing in a semi-circle around you.

"Hey, it's okay. Relax." Wide-eyed, you looked up at Sans, who had his palms facing toward you in a non-threatening gesture. A rush of conflicting emotions flooded you. You made a desperate, strangled sound as they threatened to choke you. There were just so many; you couldn't even parse them out. Papyrus seemed to know instinctively what was wrong and quickly stepped in front of his brother, blocking him from your view.

"Don't be scared… please?" The tall skeleton was so much quieter than usual, and it filled you with an entirely different set of emotions. These were more bearable, though, and you felt yourself smiling involuntarily. You decided that you felt... happy. Yeah… happy worked. Happy was good.

You took a long, shaky breath. You weren't sure what you'd expected to happen, but it wasn't this. Seeing your expression, Papyrus smiled back at you, giving you a tentative thumbs-up. You giggled, exposing your soul again in order to cover your mouth with your hand. God, you felt high. Was this what people felt like all the time? Was this what _you_ used to feel like, before you'd thrown away your own soul? Silently, you swore to yourself that you'd never trade it for anything ever again.

"A-are you okay?" Alphys asked tentatively, and you felt a rush of affection for her.

"Never better." You gave her a smile, too. You must've looked kind of goofy, since she snorted with barely suppressed laughter.

"This is excellent news!" Papyrus was back to his usual, loud self as he bounded toward you, thrusting a helpful hand down to your spot on the floor. You flinched, but recovered more quickly than before, taking his hand in your own and allowing yourself to be pulled to your feet. Your knees knocked together as they trembled, and you clutched Papyrus' arm to stay upright. But you hadn't anticipated how your soul would float upwards with you, and it narrowly avoided bumping Papyrus in the chest. Feeling a strong jolt of energy from this near-contact, you pushed yourself violently away from your friend, your back slamming into the wall. At the same time, Sans lunged for his brother, pulling him away from you with such force that it almost knocked poor Papyrus off of his feet.

"S-sorry!" You stuttered, biting your lip and unconsciously pulling your soul closer to your chest. You felt raw and vulnerable. Having your soul outside of body had helped to numb the intense feelings that had come with regaining it, but now you just felt exposed. Suddenly unbearably shy, you blushed and covered your lavender heart with your hand again, shielding it from view. "H-how do I get it t-to go back in?" You stuttered, not looking at anyone in particular.

"You're already doing it." Sans spoke, his voice level and calm, "Just let it in." Indeed, even as he spoke, your soul was already inching closer to your chest. Fascinated, you watched as it sunk into your flesh, humming with warm energy. The glow flared bright before it disappeared completely. You shuddered at the strange sensation, your fingers spasming as you grabbed at your chest. But it didn't feel as invasive as before. In fact, even as you were still catching your breath, a pleasant feeling of wholeness seeped into your bones.

As soon as your soul was gone from view, Sans took a step forward, pushing in front of his brother. His expression was appraising. Almost… hungry? You decided you didn't like it.

"How do you feel? Is it different?" He asked, eagerly. You took a timid step back.

"I… don't know." You certainly felt something. A lot of somethings. But you weren't sure if it was the kind of thing Sans was looking for.

"But you've got your soul back. So you feel different now, right?" Even though he didn't approach you any further, you took another step away from him.

"I... " Desperate for an intervention, you looked up at Papyrus, who was standing behind Sans. In an unprecedented, but very welcome, show of subtlety, he got the hint.

"HUMAN!" He stepped around his smaller brother, half-blocking him from view. "Now that you are newly resouled, you must be hungry!" Right on cue, your stomach growled. You actually were really hungry, now that you thought about it. Papyrus seemed delighted by this. "NYEH HEH HEH HEH! Lucky for you, I added my very special spaghetti to Alphys' food museum earlier today! Or, uh… yesterday?!" He paused, and you imagined he was thinking about whether it counted as yesterday if he hadn't slept in between. "ANYWAY. Come join me!" He reached out to take your hand, and you didn't shy away this time. Papyrus pulled you past Sans, whose expression was unreadable, and Alphys, who just looked very tired.

"I-I think I'm gonna go to bed, guys. Have fun with your…" She yawned and blinked owlishly, "...stuff."

"Sleep well, Alphys!" You called over your shoulder as you were whisked away, but she was already halfway up the conveyor belt, so you didn't think she'd heard you.

As Papyrus worked on preparing his reheated spaghetti, you knelt down by the computer and scrolled through some of your own files. You were fascinated by the emotions they elicited; some of them brought fond memories, while the silly names you'd given to others made you laugh. Your heart felt incredibly light, even with Sans hovering silently over your shoulder. On a whim, you tried launching , but it only came up with an error message.

"Was that the game?" Sans' voice rumbled behind you. You twitched, still feeling a little intimidated by him, but you tried to answer him like a normal person.

"Y-yeah. Just thought I'd try… but it didn't work." He loomed over you, his hands bracketing you in as he leaned both of them on the edge desk. As he studied the red, pixelated heart icon that represented the game, you pressed yourself into the desk, feeling trapped. Was this some kind of test? Surely, he knew that he was making you uncomfortable. Or would the soulless version of you not have thought anything of it?

 _Great. I've got my soul back, and I'm still questioning myself._ Some things never changed, you supposed.

"Human! Brother! The spaghetti is ready to be consumed!" Papyrus exclaimed proudly, and you were thankful for his outburst when Sans stood up straight and sauntered over to his brother. You stood, too, your knees creaking as you got up.

The meal was a little strained, though not as strained as that time Sans had taken you out to dinner. (Wait, where had that thought come from? You hadn't thought about that since… well, since it happened.) It didn't help that you were starting to get a headache. And, even though you hadn't been awake as long as Papyrus or Sans, you felt utterly spent. As soon as you choked down the undercooked pasta, you let out a huge yawn.

"I'm beat… what time is it?" You looked to Papyrus expectantly.

"Time for bed!" Papyrus leapt up, dragging you with him. "Come! You can have my mildly-uncomfortable floor-bed!" It took you a moment to realize that he meant a sleeping bag.

"Nah, Paps, they can have mine. I'm goin' home to sleep, anyway." Sans stood up, his gaze lingering on you.

"Oh." Papyrus sounded torn, but quickly recovered and exclaimed, "Well, as a good bodyguard, I must stay and protect the human! So you will just have to make due without me, Sans!" Your brow furrowed. You felt… upset by this.

"Um… you don't… have to do that, Papyrus. I'll be okay." You gave him what you hoped was a reassuring smile, but he was having none of it.

"Nonsense! I promised I wasn't going to leave you, and Papyrus never breaks his promises!" When he spoke in third person, you knew he was taking this very seriously. "Besides, there's not even a front door! Undyne could burst in at any moment!" A jolt of fear ran down your spine, and you bit your lip nervously as you glanced at the sheet that covered the hole where the front door used to be. Papyrus noticed this and hurried to pat you on the back. "Oh, no… um… don't be afraid! No one's getting through that door on my watch!" You forced yourself to smile at Papyrus. He was probably right; you needed him to watch out for you.

While Papyrus had been talking, Sans must've left through a shortcut, because he was no longer anywhere to be seen. You felt bad that you were coming between the brothers yet again, but there wasn't much that could've been done about it. As you settled into the sleeping bag Papyrus had given to you, you vowed that, somehow, you'd find a way to make it up to them. The thought of redeeming yourself…

... filled you with determination.


	20. Minutes to Midnight

The next day was a whirlwind of activity. Or, perhaps not, but it sure felt like it to you. For the whole day, you were prone to sudden bursts of emotion with little to no provocation. You had no idea how to deal with such things, so you took to just burying your head in your hands and riding it out. It was very awkward and embarrassing when it happened in the middle of a conversation, but Alphys, Papyrus, and Sans seemed to understand and just let you be whenever an onslaught of emotions hit you. Or at least, Alphys and Papyrus seemed to understand. Sans never teased or bothered you about it, but he seemed less patient with you the more it happened. It frustrated him, especially when you couldn't tell him why you had suddenly been overwhelmed with sadness or anger or fear. You didn't understand what he expected of you, and that realization in itself brought on a fit of extreme irritation that you didn't dare vocalize.

After hemming and hawing about it all morning, you decided to pull Alphys aside after lunch.

"H-hey, w-w-what's up?" She wrung her hands together and looked around nervously. Of the three monsters, Alphys seemed the most unsure of how to act around you now. It frustrated you, probably more than it should. You were still the same person… or, at least, you felt like the same person. You just had to get over these weird, emotional outbursts and you'd be back to normal.

"Well, I was thinking… Undyne's gonna come after me as soon as she knows I've got my soul back, so I'll need a place to hide." Alphys frowned sadly, and you got the feeling that you hadn't been the only one thinking about this. "Maybe… I could stay in the basement?" You kind of hated that all of the your time in the Underground was doomed to be spent locked up in one place or another, but there was no getting around it.

"Y-yeah, that's probably for the best." Alphys frowned, but nodded sadly.

"But Sans and Papyrus have to be allowed to visit me." You said, with as much sternness as you could muster. You weren't going to spend weeks, or possibly even months, completely shut off from everyone. Maybe soulless-you could've managed it, but now such a fate would've driven you insane. "So… how do you feel about telling them?" It was a lot to ask of Alphys, you knew. She was quiet for a moment, and you gave her as long as she needed to think.

"D-do you already… already know how they'll r-react?" You supposed you shouldn't have been surprised by that question, but you were. No one had ever really acknowledged the fact that you knew more about this world than you should, let alone asked you about how certain things would play out.

"Yes. Well, Sans already knows, I'm sure." If he remembered every timeline, then surely he remembered the ones where Alphys confessed her secrets. "And Papyrus? You don't have to worry about anything with him, trust me." The thought of Papyrus not forgiving anyone for anything was laughable. You were sure that Alphys had nothing to fear. She seemed reassured, and she gulped and nodded.

"Okay, I-I'll tell them, and then you can stay down there for as long as you need." She visibly steeled herself, then walked past you toward the skeleton brothers. On a whim, you reached out and grabbed her arm, stopping her in her tracks.

"You know, Alphys… sometimes, people bottle things up for so long that they become so much bigger than they really are. We hold on so tightly to our secrets and build it up in our heads so much that they become this giant, insurmountable obstacle. I'm not trying to say that it's not a big deal, or that you're overreacting, but… trust me when I say that people aren't going to be nearly as upset or angry as you think they'll be." You smiled at her warmly and gave her scaly arm a little squeeze before dropping it. She stared at you for a moment, then sniffled a little.

"T-thanks. I'll t-think about that." As Alphys walked away from you, you felt something wet fall down your cheek. You lifted a hand up to your face and saw, to your horror, that you were crying. Again. Figuring Alphys could tell the boys about the True Lab without you, you rushed to the bathroom just in time for an unsolicited sob to break out of you.

You swore, you hadn't been like this before you'd lost your soul. You sank down to the bathroom floor, wiping your tears and snot with the sleeve of the hoodie you were wearing. It was futile, though, and after a minute you gave up and just let all of your gross bodily fluids wash down your face as you hiccuped with pitiful whimpers. The crying wasn't even cathartic, since you knew you'd just be sad again about something else later.

"T-this s-sucks." You whined to yourself, your chest and throat beginning to hurt from the force of your heaving sobs. Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse, you heard a soft knock on the door.

"... You okay in there, kid?" Groaning, you buried your head in your arms. You tried to silence your cries, but they only grew louder. For a moment, you resented your own soul. Things had been so much easier without it. "Uh… well… I'll just leave you be, then." You heard Sans' feet shuffling from the other side of the door. Suddenly, you felt very strongly that you did not want him to leave.

"No!" You yelped, then slapped a hand over your mouth to quiet yourself. "S-stay? Please?" Sans said nothing, but you heard him settle down beside the closed door. You sniffled in silence, not sure if his solidarity was helping or just making you cry harder.

"You… uh… wanna talk about what's eatin' at ya?" You would've, if you actually knew what the hell you were crying about. It had started after that conversation with Alphys, but somehow, you didn't think that was the problem. Weird, emotional meltdowns like this just happened to you now, there didn't need to be a reason to-

"I m-miss my m-mom!"

You gasped, shocked at your own outburst and shaking with silent, barely-repressed sobs. God, it was true, though. You hadn't thought about your family since… well, not since you fell down here, at the very least. How was that possible? Now that you'd put a name to what was bothering you, your heart ached with how much you missed them. "I j-just w-wanna see my f-family again…" You muttered between hiccups, grabbing a towel from the rack above you and smothering your tear-stained face in it. Against all odds, Sans actually understood what you'd said.

"You'll see 'em again. I know you will." You recognized the phrasing, and it only made you cry impossibly harder.

"Y-y-you don't b-believe that!" Your voice was embarrassingly high-pitched, and you vowed to yourself that you wouldn't speak again until you'd calmed down. Sans didn't respond to your accusation, but, through the crack under the door, you could see his shadow still sitting outside.

Slowly, you managed to rein in your gasping until your breaths were controlled, if perhaps a little shaky. You wiped your face over and over again with the now-damp towel until your skin was red. Once you'd calmed yourself down to a quiet sniffling, you saw something move by your hip. You looked down to see that Sans had stuck his fingers under the door. The bones clacked on the linoleum as he wiggled them, and you laughed in spite of the few stray tears that still fell past your eyelids.

"What d'you take me for? A cat?" You mumbled, remembering that you used to play with your pets like this through your bedroom door. You reached down and touched his hand anyway, running the pads of your own fingers over the phalanges of his pointer finger. He curled his fingers up, trying to trap your hand in his own, but you pulled away before he could grab you. You kept playing this game of trying to touch his fingers and jerking away before he could react. Surprisingly, the simple distraction helped.

After a few repetitions, you started to get bored. But then, as you were contemplating emerging from the bathroom, an invisible force pulled your hand down. You gasped, bracing your other hand on the door, but the magic only pulled you far enough for Sans to curl his fingers around your own.

"Cheater!" You exclaimed, and you heard a low chuckle from the other side of the door. It took you a moment to realize that, in a way, you were kind of holding his hand. You pulled away, cheeks reddening. Sans took his hand back, too, but you figured it was only because there were light footsteps approaching his side of the door. You heard a feminine voice, but it was too quiet for you to make out what she was saying. You pressed your ear to the door curiously.

"Right. Thanks, Alphys." Sans' muffled voice was followed by the sound of the footsteps retreating. Suddenly, something rapped sharply on the door, right by your head. You yelped and jumped away, wrinkling your nose and rubbing your ear.

"I've got something for you, if you come out." Sans bribed you, and you were more than willing to accept. You scrambled to your feet, using the wall to push yourself up. Hastily, you checked yourself in the mirror. With red eyes and telltale damp spots on your sleeves, you definitely looked like you'd been crying. But, there wasn't much to be done about it. You cracked open the door and were met with the sight of Sans, standing right next to the entrance with your cane in his hands.

"Oh!" You threw the door open the rest of the way and took your cane from him. You'd kind of forgotten about it, if you were being honest. You hadn't exactly had to do a lot of walking in your cell, nor had you done anything too strenuous since getting out. Still, it was nice to have it back. "Thank you."

"Heh, you should handcuff that thing to your wrist. Maybe you wouldn't lose it as much." Sans joked. It was a bit of a habit of yours, wasn't it?

"Nah, I'd still find a way to misplace it." You twirled the cane around in your hand like a baton, leaning against the doorframe as you did so. "I remember, when I first got it, I'd purposely leave it places, trying to get rid of it. Man, my mom would get so mad when I'd leave it behind in a store or something, heh…" Noticing that Sans was looking at you instead of the cane, you stopped twirling it, feeling silly. You rubbed the back of your neck, then wiped your eyes just to make sure you weren't crying again. "Uh, sorry, you probably don't care about that."

"No, I think it's interesting. You've never talked about your family before." He shrugged, and both of you broke eye contact at the same time. "Just figured you didn't wanna talk about 'em. Bad memories, or something."

"Huh? No!" You jumped to your family's defense, feeling particularly protective of them now that you had to make up for forgetting their existence. "No, they're… great." You checked for tears again. So far, so good, but you sensed you were entering dangerous territory. "I just… maybe I shouldn't talk about it right now. I can tell you about them when I'm not such a crybaby, haha." You laughed weakly.

"I'd like that." The two of you stood around for a moment, not looking at each other. Sans was being a lot nicer than usual, and you wondered what had spurred it on. Maybe you'd gotten so pathetic that it went from being pitiful, to annoying, and looped back around to being pitiful again. You didn't know where the two of you stood, now. Were you friends? Acquaintances? Grudging coworkers until this whole mess was sorted out?

Out of nowhere, you heard a bang and a yell. You furrowed your brow, not sure whether to laugh or be concerned. It sounded distant, like it was coming from under your feet.

"I think Alphys is showing Papyrus around the basement. Wanna go see? I've got a shortcut." He winked at you, and you did laugh, then. It was such a little thing, but you'd missed seeing him wink.

"Of course you do... lead the way."

The rest of the afternoon was spent horsing around in the basement, getting you settled into your new accommodations. There were plenty of spare beds, a bathroom, and even a vending machine if you ever wanted a midnight snack. With the power functioning at full capacity, the place was actually quite warm and bright, for a basement. Not nearly as scary now that it was in a different light. The sterility made it feel a bit like a hospital, but it was certainly a step up from the cell in the brothers' shed.

Plus, you had company. Lots of company. The Amalgamates were much friendlier to you now that you were newly re-souled, and Endogeny was especially ecstatic to have you back. To top it off, Papyrus had been quick to claim a bed next to yours. You'd tried to convince him to just go home and sleep in his own bed, but he was having none of it.

"The Great Papyrus will not be persuaded! Besides, you are the one who told me not to leave, remember?!" He put his hands on his hips triumphantly. You bit your lip and mumbled unintelligibly, unable to argue with that fact. You had insisted that Papyrus never leave your side, but that felt like a lifetime ago. You'd been so on-edge and fearful for your life, but now, you felt quite safe. You were a little wary around Sans; he seemed to expect something of you, but you still weren't sure what that was. But, after the bathroom incident, you just felt like he wouldn't hurt you. Maybe it was intuition, or perhaps misplaced trust. Maybe you would feel different once your emotional state leveled out. Only time would tell.

After Papyrus got his way in the bed debacle, Alphys brought down some old VHS tapes and a bowl full of popcorn from upstairs.

"I thought we could watch something together… t-there's a TV in one of the side-rooms… b-but you probably already k-knew that, huh?" While Alphys carried the food and you and Papyrus each hauled swathes of blankets and pillows, Sans took a… more unconventional route to the TV room. He was still exploring all of the shortcuts available to him in the basement (you'd kind of been under the impression that they just appeared wherever he wanted them to, but apparently that was not how it worked). By the time he rejoined the group, the three of you had already settled on the floor, with Alphys in the middle and you and Papyrus on either side of her.

"S'a big blizzard in Snowdin right now." He grunted, kicking off his snow-soaked slippers and brushing the white powder from his hood. He seemed to hesitate when picking a place to sit, but ended up plopping down on Papyrus' lap, much to the taller skeleton's dismay.

"SANS OH MY GOD! YOU'RE SO COLD, GET OFF OF ME!" Papyrus shrieked, causing Alphys to cringe and cover her ears.

"But you're warming me to the _bone_ , bro." Sans made a point to sink down further, reaching over to help himself to one of the blankets on Alphys' lap. The problem was, Alphys had been sharing that one with you, so it was rudely yanked from your lap. You squawked in protest, trying to pull it away from him in vain. After a lot of scuffling and tug-of-war, all four of you ended up squished together, sharing the same blanket. You and Alphys had switched places, since she felt uncomfortable being in the middle, so you were squeezed between her and Papyrus. But you didn't mind. In fact, it felt… nice. Like you really belonged in the group. If only Papyrus had a little flesh on his bones, because the side of his sharp pelvic bone didn't feel so great digging into your hip.

Once the seating arrangements had been settled, Alphys popped in some animated movie that you'd never heard of, stammering about how deep the characters were as she fast-forwarded past the previews in the beginning. As part of your duty as the person in the middle, you held the bowl of popcorn in your lap for everyone to graze out of. You got sleepy almost immediately, not really paying attention to the movie in favor of basking in the warm, tingly feeling you were experiencing.

At some point, you must've fallen asleep, because you woke up in a fuzzy haze an indeterminate amount of time later. Still half-asleep, you couldn't be bothered to open your eyes. The movie must have finished, because all you could hear was the static white noise that signaled the end of the tape. There was some shuffling and confused murmuring before even that went abruptly quiet. Clearly, someone had figured out how to turn off the TV.

"Did _both_ of them fall asleep?" You recognized Papyrus' terrible stage-whispering.

"Think so, bro." You figured they were talking about you and Alphys, since you recognized the sound of her light snoring and could feel her head leaning on your shoulder, something she would never have done if she was awake. You didn't correct Sans; you were warm and comfy and were probably going to fall back asleep soon anyway, so why bother?

"Ha! They're even lazier than you!" Normally, that sort of jab at his brother was par for the course for Papyrus, but this time it left a bad taste in the atmosphere that even you, in your half-asleep state, could sense. "Ah… Sans?"

"...yeah Paps?"

"I… I'm sorry I yelled at you before. I was just so mad! That you locked up my friend, and that you lied to me about it… but I shouldn't have yelled at you…" You marveled at how sincere Papyrus sounded, but felt suddenly uncomfortable. You were not meant to be hearing this. Was it too late to pretend to wake up?

"S'okay." Sans grunted. In your mind, you visualized him shrugging.

"No it's not!" Papyrus said loudly, then seemed to remember himself and lowered his volume again, "I just wish you felt like you could trust me. Did I do something wrong?" Sans was silent, and Papyrus' bones rattled as he implored, "Please, you have to tell me! You have to tell me if I did something wrong, because I can-"

"You didn't do anything, bro. It's just me, it's my fault. I… don't worry about it, okay?" More silence, and then,

"Okay." Papyrus' voice sounded so small, it broke your heart.

"C'mon, let's get these two to bed. I'll get the kid." You almost jumped and blew your own cover when a pair of boney arms slid under your knees and shoulders, gently pulling you away from Alphys.

"Okay… wait a minute, you just want to avoid walking all the way to the top floor, don't you?!" Papyrus accused, sounding like his normal self again. Sans didn't seem to have a problem carrying your weight; his arms didn't tremble at all and there was no strain in his voice when he said,

"Heh, yeah… got me, bro." You shifted a little to nestle your head in the crook of his elbow, figuring you couldn't be blamed for getting cozy if you were assumed to be asleep. It was surprisingly comfortable, lying in Sans' arms. You still had a blanket wrapped around you, and you thought Sans might've been using magic to help out since you felt a bit weightless. You wondered, then, why he didn't just lift you up and float you down the hall with nothing but his magic. He was plenty capable of it, as you were painfully aware.

Papyrus seemed satisfied with his brother's admission of guilt, since he just let out a small "hmph!" of triumph and let the matter drop. You heard the taller skeleton's quick, lengthy footsteps as they disappeared into the distance, quickly outpacing Sans' slow, steady ones. You felt a little guilty that you were letting yourself be carried, but you didn't want to admit that you'd heard Sans and Papyrus' private conversation. Plus, a lazy, selfish part of you just didn't want to walk. So you remained limp, inhaling the pleasant smell of popcorn from Sans' hoodie.

Too soon, you felt yourself be lowered carefully onto a bed. He pulled the covers over you, even going so far as to tuck you in. You felt the mattress dip as he sat down at the end of it. With bated breath, you waited for him to start monologuing all of his secrets and insecurities to your "sleeping" self. That was how it worked in movies, right? But, to your slight disappointment, he just sat there, acting as a silent guardian until Papyrus' footsteps approached again.

"Sans? I…" He yawned, then continued, "I found this book in Alphys' room. I was wondering… could you… read it to me?" Papyrus sounded hopeful, and you wondered; when was the last time Sans had read him his bedtime story? You knew for a fact that it hadn't happened last night, but maybe the ritual had even been put on hold since their fight.

"'Course, Paps. Get comfy." You heard the bed creaking as Papyrus settled himself on it, while Sans continued sitting on your mattress. As soon as the bedsprings stopped squeaking, Sans cleared his throat and started reading. Immediately, you began to drift off.

 _He's got to be using some kind of magic._ You thought wearily as you tried and failed to focus on what he was saying. Something about a robot… being late for school…

With that, you fell into a deep, dreamless slumber.


	21. The Second First Date

Days slipped by, passing uneventfully from one to the next. According to Alphys, Undyne had showed up the morning after movie night, after visiting the shed only to find it empty. You shuddered to think what she would've done if you _had_ still been locked up there and were glad that, even though you were soulless at the time, you'd been able to work out an agreement with Sans. Apparently, Undyne had thrown a horrible tantrum when Alphys admitted to her that she, Papyrus, and Sans had gone behind her back to re-soul you. She'd been even angrier when Alphys told her that they had you hidden away somewhere. It made you a little uneasy to know that your hiding spot was right underneath Undyne's nose, but, even if the Empress did happen to find the elevator down to the basement, the doors that led to the main part of the lab were locked. Alphys told you she'd hidden the red key away someplace safe, so, unless Undyne managed to steal the key or you opened the door for her from the inside, there was no way she'd be able to get to you.

Other than that incident, which you had slept straight through, nothing much happened from day to day. It was actually quite similar to how you'd spent your days back at the brothers' house when you'd first fallen into the Underground, only with fewer faked injuries and more amorphous, zombie-monsters to play hide-and-seek with. You'd spent almost an entire day just playing that game with the Amalgamates, Sans, and Papyrus. The Amalgamates made the game more challenging with their ability to shapeshift, so usually the only way to find them was to count the objects in every room and figure out if there was one too many. Papyrus was hilariously bad at hiding, but infuriatingly good at seeking. Sans alternated between not trying at all, and hiding so well that you were fairly certain he'd been using his shortcuts to cheat.

Alphys, for her part, didn't spend much time with you in the True Lab. She came down at least once a day to make sure you and Papyrus (and often Sans, who rarely ever left the lab himself despite having no obligation to be there) were getting on alright. But otherwise, she said she spent most of her time looking for ways to get you past the barrier.

"It's n-not going well," She told you on the fourth day, "T-there aren't any more b-boss monsters after Asgore… a-and even if there were, w-we don't want to hurt anybody… do you maybe have any ideas? Did anything like this happen in the- the g-game?"

But no, you didn't have any insider knowledge in this case. In fact, you felt incredibly useless. It was you who had caused this problem to begin with, but there was little you could do to solve it. If only you'd just played the game the right way and left it at that! Why'd you have to ruin everything with your damned curiosity? The weight of that mistake settled right between your shoulder blades, tapping you on the back and reminding you of its presence every time you started to enjoy yourself a little. If you'd thought that dark feeling had been a burden before you had a soul, it was so much worse now.

You had to do something to get rid of it. It would consume you if you let it fester any longer. Deep down, you already knew what that something was…

"HELLO, BEST FRIEND!" You jumped, startled out of your thoughts by Papyrus' loud proclamation. He had a suspicious, shifty-eyed look on his face and was holding something behind his back.

"Uh, yeah?" Papyrus tapped his bones, making a loud, clacking noise as he did so.

"Hmm… how do I put this… Alphys and I have been planning a surprise for you, but it requires that you leave the vicinity of this bedroom! There is not a lot of room down here to set up surprises, you know." You had the strong urge to tease him by pointing out that it wasn't exactly a surprise if he told you about it beforehand, but he looked perturbed enough already that you decided not to needle him further.

"Alright, I suppose I can do that." You made to walk through the North door, thinking you could watch some TV while you waited, but Papyrus shrieked wordlessly and grabbed your arm, pulling you back.

"NO! You must wait over here! It's very important!" You allowed yourself to be dragged into the flower room, not sure whether to be amused or concerned about this elaborate "surprise".

"Okay! Now put this on and don't come out until I tell you!" Papyrus shoved the thing he'd been hiding from view into your arms and cackled loudly before slamming the door in your face. You blinked, taking a moment to collect yourself before looking down at what Papyrus had just given you. A feeling of dread rushed down your spine when you realized…

It was a dress.

The same dress you'd worn on the date with Sans.

 _Alright, calm down,_ You told yourself firmly as your heart began to beat out of your chest, _He said Alphys was in on this, and I trust her not to…_ Then, you remembered; Alphys was a huge shipper. She would definitely, one-hundred percent, set you up on a blind date with Sans.

You groaned and buried your face in the fabric of the dress. Why… _why_ would they think this was a good idea?! Things were just starting to be okay again between you and Sans. You'd never talked about the things either of you had done when you were soulless, but you liked to think the two of you had reached a silent agreement to just forget about all of that. He wasn't mad at you anymore, and he wasn't acting as weird as he had been the day after your re-souling, either. You definitely didn't want a reenactment of the date, which was one of the things you regretted the most about your time in the Underground.

You were about to walk back into the bedroom and call this whole thing off, but you hesitated. A romantic date between you and Sans was an objectively terrible idea, but it _would_ allow you a good opportunity to talk to the shorter brother alone. There was something you needed to ask of him, and you might as well get it over with now, while Papyrus was out of earshot.

There was absolutely _no_ way you were wearing the dress, though.

After spending at least twenty minutes just listening to the banging, scraping, and hushed whispers coming from the bedroom area, you were finally summoned by Papyrus. He threw open the door, his grin immediately falling upon seeing you.

"What is this?! I told you to put on the dress, why have you not put it on?!" You frowned at him, peeved that he'd gone behind your back to set this up. He probably didn't realize how precarious things were between you and Sans, but still. He should've known better than to do this.

"I'm not wearing it. That's not up for debate." Papyrus gasped in outrage, then steeled himself by taking a deep breath.

"Well, fine! But you will feel very silly once you see the surprise, and then you'll wish you'd listened to me!" With that, Papyrus swept out of the room. You followed after him reluctantly, leaving the dress to lay forgotten on the floor.

Sure enough, when you walked into the bedroom, all of the beds had been pushed to the walls, leaving a single, candle-lit table in the center. It was painfully reminiscent of how Sans had pushed all of the tables in the restaurant to the side on your first date. All of the Amalgamates must've been shooed out of the room, since there was usually at least one sulking in the corner or quivering in their sleep as they took a midday nap. The lights were off, leaving only the candle to light the room. Honestly, the way the lone source light cast tall shadows on the walls made it look more creepy than romantic.

Papyrus rushed forward, pulling out a chair for you. You bit your tongue and sat down silently, resting your cane between your knees.

"I will be right back! Don't move!" And Papyrus was off again, disappearing through the northern hallway. You leaned your head on one of your hands, using the other to tap your fingers on the tabletop restlessly. You heard an indistinct conversation in the distance, the talking growing clearer as they moved closer.

"-not my b-day, so what's the occasion? Didja make your fancy spaghetti for dinner?" Sans' voice made your heart fall. Yup, this was really happening.

"No! Well, yes. But that's not why! Just get in there!" A pair of gloved hands shoved Sans around the corner, and, when he saw you, he froze.

Your unsuspecting date was dressed up, thankfully not in the same clothes he'd worn last time. He looked, if anything, more formal, since he had a slightly too-big coat now to go with the dress shirt and pants. Papyrus was right; you did feel kind of silly wearing just a t-shirt and jeans.

"Uh…" It seemed Sans had not been able to guess what the surprise was, judging by the dumbfounded look on his face. You realized, then, that you didn't look very welcoming, slumped over as you were and in the middle of tapping your fingers impatiently. You sat up straight and put your hands in you lap. This wasn't his fault, after all, so there was no reason to be rude. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't- I'll go gell Papyrus to-"

"It's fine." You interrupted his stammering with a forced smile. "I actually wanted to talk to you about something, anyway." Sans raised his brows.

"Oh. 'Kay." He took a few shuffling steps over to the table and sat down across from you. Before you could figure out how to begin, Papyrus burst into the room holding two plates above his head.

"Bon appetit!" He exclaimed as he set the plates of spaghetti down with more force than was necessary. You had to react quickly to grab your plate before it slid right off the table. Sans grinned up at his brother and, before he even said anything, you started snickering. You knew exactly what was coming...

"Don't you mean _bone_ -"

"NO!" Papyrus shrieked and left the room in a hurry, leaving you and Sans to giggle to yourselves.

"So, what'd you want to talk about?" Sans said as he twirled a huge gob of noodles onto his fork, promptly stuffing it in his mouth. You snorted at the sight of the spaghetti noodles hanging limply from his teeth. He was really trying hard to lighten the mood, which you appreciated. Too bad you were about to bring it crashing back down.

"I want you to take my soul and cross the barrier."

Sans choked on his food. He coughed for long enough that you wondered if you should get up and do something. How did one perform the Heimlich maneuver on a skeleton? Thankfully, before you could get too worried, he managed to swallow whatever he'd been hacking up of his own accord.

"You want me to do _what_?" His voice was squeaky and harsh from nearly choking, which you found a little funny despite the circumstances.

"I want you to take my soul and cross the barrier." You repeated calmly. Sans stared at you, uncomprehending.

"I'm sorry, I thought you just said that you want to throw away everything you've been working towards, for _months_ , for no damn reason. But that's ridiculous, right?" You cringed. You hadn't expected him to be this surprised by your decision. It made you a bit defensive.

"I'm not throwing anything away… you know as well as I do that there's no way to get a monster soul into my body. Even if Alphys did figure out a way to make a monster soul last long enough for me to absorb it, it would still mean killing the monster. Either way, someone dies… why not skip the middle man and make that someone me?" You'd really thought that, if he didn't jump on board right away, the rational appeal would surely convince him you were right. But Sans simply stared at you like you were crazy.

"Are you okay?" The question, delivered in a matter-of-fact tone by someone who was rarely so serious, caught you off guard.

"W-what do you mean?" You stuttered, fiddling with your fork. You hadn't expected this to be so difficult.

"I mean, you're sounding like you did when you didn't have a soul." You jolted back, stung by the comment. It was more hurtful than Sans probably realized.

"No I'm not!" You defended yourself instinctively but, the more you thought about it, the more you realized he was right. You'd sounded cold, detached. But that wasn't what was going to move Sans to agree with you. Ever since you'd gotten your soul back, he'd been watching for some sign that you were different, now. That you weren't some freak who would kill everyone if they thought it would benefit them. This was your chance to show him that you _were_ better than that.

"Okay, maybe that did sound bad. I just…" You took a deep breath, "I want to do this. Monsters should be free. Toriel and Asgore should still be alive. And who knows what's happening to Frisk right now. I want to save everyone. I _need_ to. It's my fault that things are like this, and it's my responsibility to fix it. If that means I have to... d-die-"

"It doesn't." Sans interrupted firmly.

"You know that's not true. That's why you haven't been helping Alphys lately… it's because you know there's no way to get a monster soul into my body, right?"

"No, it's not that," Sans looked down at his hands, which were folded on the table, "Well, it's partly that, but also… I just… things are fine the way they are. Sometimes, it's better to just take what's given to you." He looked up at you imploringly. It was your turn to be dumbfounded.

"That's a load of shit, Sans." He gritted his teeth, looking away from you again. You had the sudden urge to reach out to him, but you thought that might not have been appropriate. So you kept your hands to yourself. "I have to fix this. If we keep going the way we are… it'll destroy me. I've got this… this horrible _guilt_ weighing on me, and I've got to do something to make it right. Not just to you, but to everyone." You ran your fingers through your hair, using the other hand to clutch the handle of your cane. "Maybe you don't understand that, but just know that, if you don't do this, I'll find someone else to do it, instead." Unable (or perhaps just unwilling) to stop yourself any longer, you reached out and took one of his hands in yours. He let himself be held without protest, which you took to be a good sign. "Hey… I'd really like it to be you, though. I told you I'd show you the stars, didn't I?" That got him to drag his eyes up to your face. You were smiling, but he looked unbearably sad.

"I'll have to kill you, you know." You nodded resolutely, and Sans pulled his hand out of your grasp sharply. "Why are you okay with this?! If I'd known giving you your soul back was gonna make you suicidal, I wouldn't have-"

"It's a better way to go than just sitting here in the basement, waiting for someone else to fix my mistakes. That's not who I want to be." You left your hand sit in the middle of the table; an offer, in case he wanted to take it back. He didn't. Instead, he buried his head in his hands.

"Jesus christ… alright. Alright." Your heart fluttered.

"You'll do it?" You asked, both hopeful and afraid.

"Yeah, I'll do it. Fuck." His agreement was bittersweet. On one hand, you wouldn't have to find someone else to do this for you. But on the other… this was really happening.

"Thank you." You sat back in your seat, taking your hand back and putting it on your lap.

"But not now. We're waiting at least a week and… if you still want to go through with it…" He trailed off. Figuring that was fair, you nodded. Maybe you would change your mind. Maybe this was just another one of those wild mood swings you were prone to, even though you hadn't had one for days. It was a good idea to wait, anyway. You'd get the chance to say goodbye…

Your eyes prickled, but you resolutely avoided crying. Breaking down now wouldn't have helped your case any. Instead, you focused on eating the spaghetti that you hadn't even touched yet. You'd have to make plans, figure out what you were going to say to your friends. There wasn't really much point to saying goodbye; if everything went well, no one down here would remember you, anyway. But, for your own sanity, you felt like you had to do something special.

You'd just managed to choke down your plate of spaghetti when Papyrus came back into the room, interrupting your "date". Over his shoulder, you saw Alphys hovering in the doorway, frowning at Paps.

"So…? How's it going?" Papyrus looked back and forth between the two of you. Sans put on an easy smile. You envied his ability to fake it so well.

"Good, bro. But I think we're done now." The shorter brother stood up, pushing in his chair while carefully avoiding looking at you.

"WHAT?! But it's only been twelve and a half minutes!" He looked outraged at this injustice. You stood up, too, patting Papyrus on the elbow.

"It's okay, Paps. We're just not really ready to date again. We'd rather be friends, instead." You cleared your throat, your voice rough with suppressed emotion. "It was a nice surprise, though."

"OHH! I SEE! You have reached the friend zone!" He winked at Sans, as though this were an accomplishment. "Well! In that case! I shall put away the dating manual and consult the hangout manual for advice, instead!" Papyrus picked up his brother around the waist, pointing dramatically into the distance. "COME, BROTHER! We must prepare the best platonic hangout for tomorrow! Nyeh heh heh!" He easily hoisted Sans over his shoulder, taking off at a trot to god-knows-where. He seemed to have finally forgotten about his vow to never leave your side, since this was the first time he'd left you alone all week.

"I-I'm s-sorry, t-this was a bad idea, w-wasn't it?" Now that the two of you were alone, Alphys finally spoke, fiddling with her lab coat as she stuttered.

"It's fine, Alphys." Twelve and a half minutes ago, you would've been angry at her for this. But, now that you only had a week to live… it seemed like far too trivial a thing to get mad over. "I don't mind, really." You smiled at her patiently. "Hey, how about we leave this mess for the boys to clean up and watch another episode of that anime, instead? The kissy one?" She snorted as she giggled, seeming to perk up at that idea.

"Y-yeah, okay! Oh, the next episode is a good one, too! They have a sleepover but during their pillow fight, one of the twins gets a phone call from her mom but it's actually the doctor calling to tell her that…" You only half-listened to Alphys as she spoiled the whole episode for you, leading the way to the TV room as she talked. In that moment, you were just happy that she was happy, and that was enough for now.


	22. The Abyss Gazes Also Into You

Time moved strangely over the following week. At some points, it seemed to rush past you in a blur, leaving you looking back at it longingly, wondering if you should've spent the precious minutes differently. Other times, like the moments just before you fell asleep, seemed to stretch on forever. You thought a lot, in those times, about things you couldn't change anymore. Arguments you'd had with friends and family on the surface (many of which, you realized now, had definitely been influenced by your lack of soul), relationships you'd never have the chance to patch up. And always, in the back of your mind, the nagging knowledge that you could call this off at any moment.

After your pseudo-date, Sans had grown quiet. He wasn't obvious about it, but you could tell he was brooding. Begging out of Papyrus' games, turning down food… physically, he was always present, but mentally, he was somewhere else. Often, you caught him blatantly staring at you, and you knew he was waiting for you to change your mind. But you didn't.

The day after the date, Papyrus and Sans set up a host of puzzles for you which, cumulatively, took up all of the available space in the basement. This, apparently, had been Papyrus' idea of a cool, platonic hangout for you and Sans, though it was clear that Papyrus had put far more effort into preparing it than Sans had. The puzzles were actually quite complicated, and they were made even more difficult by the fact that your head wasn't really in it. When the puzzles got too hard, or just physically impossible, a few of the more sentient Amalgamates would come to your rescue and discretely help you cheat your way through them. Once you'd finished Papyrus' gauntlet, your reward had been to kick back and rest while Papyrus cleaned up the mess he'd made, hurriedly sweeping everything up before Alphys could come down and see the disheveled state of her lab.

The next day had been less hectic. You'd had a lot of time to think, and you weren't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. On that day, you made the decision not to tell Papyrus or Alphys about what you were planning to do. Keeping another secret left a bad taste in your mouth, but you reasoned that it was for the best. All that your friends could have offered you was sympathy, and you didn't need or want it. Knowing about your impending death would've only caused them distress (or at least, you hoped you'd made enough of an impact on them that they'd be a little upset), and that was the last thing you wanted to do.

The third day, you decided to devote to Alphys. As much as Papyrus assured you that he enjoyed living with you in the basement, you knew he'd appreciate a day off. So you shooed him away, telling him to spend a day tending to his abandoned puzzles and building snowmen with Sans at home. Once he was gone, you managed to convince Alphys to stop working on the monster soul problem for a day. It was hard to pull her away from her work but, once the two of you got going on some Mew Mew Kissy Cutie, she forgot all about her obligations. The two of you whiled away the day just relaxing, eating ramen and binge watching her favorite anime. In the evening, you took a break from that and turned on an MTT show. You'd almost forgotten about Mettaton, and asked her what the eccentric robot was up to these days.

"Oh, not much. O-or at least, nothing unusual for him." Alphys frowned at a disfigured kernel of popcorn in her hand, thinking hard about something. "H-he doesn't really visit me m-much anymore. I g-guess we're both busy…"

"I wish I could've met him." You lamented, staring at the screen with a faraway look. Mettaton had never been your favorite person in the game; he was as conceited as Papyrus with none of the innocence or warmth. But, if he was Alphys' friend, he couldn't have been too bad.

"O-oh! You still could… I could call him up… m-maybe next weekend?" You gave Alphys an empty smile. You already had other plans for next week.

"Yeah, that would be great."

The fourth day, you spent with Papyrus. But, to be fair, you spent just about every day with Papyrus. You wanted to make this one special, so you enlisted the help of Sans. He'd been even lazier than usual lately, but, when it was about making his brother happy, he was more than willing to lend a hand.

Since Undyne had apparently given up on stalking the skeletons after her argument with Alphys, Sans agreed to take you to their house for a short field trip. While you were there, you went to Papyrus' room and found the Rubik's cube the two of you shared, sitting in a place of pride on the action figure table. You stuffed it in your pocket, figuring it was better off in your possession. After all, it wouldn't have any sentimental value to Papyrus once the inevitable reset happened.

But, the real reason you'd wanted to go to the brothers' house was because they had a kitchen. There, you and Sans stumbled through making spaghetti. Neither of you knew much about cooking, but, between the two of you, you had just enough knowledge to put together a half-decent plate of pasta. Despite the fact that he could've easily made his own spaghetti, Papyrus had been overjoyed when you'd presented your creation to him. He raved about how good it was, and asserted that you must've learned by his example (which, to be honest, was more of an insult than a compliment, but you took it in stride). Sans had tried to let you take all the credit, but you insisted to Papyrus that his brother had helped tremendously.

That was when you realized; just as you were counting down the days to your demise, so, too, was Sans. After all, he was the monster who was going to be absorbing a human soul. As far as you knew, that sort of thing had only ever happened once before, and it had meant the death of both the human and the monster. Who knew how it would affect him… or if he'd ever be the same again. You'd been so selfishly thinking about yourself and how you were going to spend the last week of your life, that you hadn't even thought about Sans' wellbeing. Sure, he wasn't the one who was going to literally die, but he deserved to enjoy these last moments of normalcy, too.

That was why you gave the fifth day to Sans.

"Huh?" Sans questioned you, brow furrowed.

"You heard me… I want you to pick what we're going to do today. It can be whatever you want. I'm all ears." You sat on the foot of your bed, one leg folded under the other as you patiently waited for Sans' verdict. The skeleton scratched the back of his head, even though he had no skin there to be itching.

"I know what you've been doin', kid, and I don't need some kinda farewell tour. There's no items left on this bucket list." He winked at you, but, for what might've been the first time, you didn't laugh.

"There's gotta be something you want to do. It can be anything… really! You wanna go sledding in Snowdin? I'm game. You wanna challenge me to a ketchup drinking contest? You'll win, but I'll give it my all. You want me to leave you the hell alone? I'll do that, too." Sans snorted, but you weren't joking. When he realized that, he frowned at you.

"You're serious? Anything?" You nodded, suddenly feeling a little apprehensive. Sans stood up from his seat on the bed across from yours, the mattress creaking as his weight left it. Silently, he walked over to you, his expression neutral. You weren't sure what you'd expected, but it was certainly not for him to lean down and plant his teeth on your lips.

 _Oh._ You thought, your mind suddenly devoid of all other activity. When you didn't pull away from him, he brought one hand up to cradle your jaw. He brushed his thumb over the corner of your mouth, sending a zap of electricity through your skull that seemed to jolt your brain back into action. You realized, then, that you should probably be doing something. Sans had no lips or tongue, so, if this was what was happening, you were going to have to do all of the actual kissing.

And, by god, if it was a makeout session he wanted, it was a makeout session he was gonna get.

You pressed up to meet him, standing on one leg while the other stayed kneeling on the bed. He seemed surprised by this and made a small, pleased sound as you draped your arms over his shoulders. Your left hand came up to hold the back of his head, and his free hand settled on your hip. You weren't really sure what to do with a skeleton, but you tried valiantly anyway, parting your lips to press your tongue against his teeth. He moaned and cracked open his own mouth, so you figured you were doing something right. Feeling bold, you dipped your tongue in his mouth, exploring the backs of his teeth. But, after a minute of sloppily running your tongue over his bones, you quickly ran out of ideas.

You pulled back a little, appraising his expression. His eyes were heavy-lidded but bright, the lights of his pupils bigger than you'd ever seen them. His face was relaxed; for once, he wasn't straining to maintain a smile. You both stared at each other for a moment, before he broke the trance by pulling you down into a hug, one of his hands moving to the nape of your neck and the other to the small of your back.

"Thanks." His voice cracked, and you laughed breathlessly. He carded a hand through your hair, his phalanges snagging on a tangle every now and then, while you rubbed little circles into his spine.

"Yeah…" This was swiftly crossing the line from sweet into awkward, so you tapped lightly on his back to signal that you wanted to be let go. He squeezed you briefly before releasing you, stepping back as you sat back down on the bed in the same position that you'd started in.

"Heh, well…" Sans rubbed the back of his head where you'd been touching him moments before, his cheeks dusted with a light blue blush. "That was…" He cleared his throat, then stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Welp, think I'll spend the rest of my day at Grillby's." He shrugged, then winked at you, "See ya later." With that, he stepped backwards into a shortcut, tripping a little over the corner of the bed as he went.

That encounter left you feeling confused and abruptly alone. If it weren't for your mussed-up hair, you would've questioned whether or not that had actually happened. Once you got over the shock, you were a little put out. Was that really all he'd wanted you for? Not that you wanted to get more heated with him than that (did you?), but you felt a little used. _He could've… I dunno… taken me out to dinner, or something._ You thought dejectedly to yourself as you fixed your hair. Well, it was his day, you supposed. You did tell him you'd do whatever he wanted, so if what he wanted was to make out with you and then not speak to you again all day, he was well within his rights to do just that. You just hadn't really expected that from him, was all.

The rest of Sans' day was spent severely lacking in its namesake. You, Alphys, and Papyrus played Apples to Apples, a game which Alphys had found in the dump back when you'd all been looking for aluminum. Sans returned just in time for Papyrus' bedtime story, carrying a small pile of clothes and books under his arm.

"I was wondering… it might be easier if I just slept here. If that's okay." Sans looked at you, and you shrugged. Then, thinking that was probably too cold a response, replied,

"Yeah, that sounds good."

Day six was your day.

The week hadn't gone exactly how you'd wanted it to, but that was okay. It was never going to be perfect; you could've tried a thousand times and you would never have gotten it just the way you wanted. But you were content with what you'd done so far. You'd tried to spend time with each person, doing what they liked to do. The memories you'd made were objectively useless; Papyrus and Alphys wouldn't remember you or any of the good times you'd had. But it comforted you to know that somewhere, in some timeline of some alternate universe, you'd spent your last week making them happy. You'd hurt them so much, in ways that they didn't even know, that it was the least you could've done.

On the sixth day, though, you wanted to do your own thing. You woke up early in the morning, made yourself coffee in the big, clunky machine Alphys had brought down at your request earlier in the week, and borrowed one of Sans' physics books to read while you waited for everyone else to wake up. It was the same book you'd started long ago, when you'd still been living in the skeletons' house. There was no way you were ever going to finish it, but you'd just have to deal with that inevitability. Not everything could get wrapped up nice and neat.

Papyrus woke promptly at seven, and you immediately asked him to time you while you solved the Rubik's cube. He was as enthusiastic about it as ever, screeching encouragements at you as you came closer and closer to breaking the one-minute mark. When you finally did, both of you screamed so loud that you woke Sans up, which was no easy feat. He looked incredibly confused upon waking to the sight of you and his brother hugging, Papyrus going so far as to lift you off your feet and spin you around.

"OH MY GOD! I KNEW YOU COULD DO IT!" You laughed, and then cried, and then cried harder, and then spent a long time trying to convince a very concerned Papyrus that you were okay… really! Once you'd calmed down, you managed to blow the whole incident off as just a stray mood swing, probably left over from getting your soul back. At your request, Papyrus grudgingly agreed to pick up Grillby's for lunch, but only because you'd achieved such a momentous milestone in your puzzle-solving abilities.

As soon as he left, your reassuring smile fell, and you looked over at Sans.

"Midnight."

He nodded, and the two of you said nothing more to each other for the rest of the day.

That afternoon, you contemplated asking Alphys if you could use her computer, but ultimately decided against it. You might've been able to use the still-functioning satellite to contact your friends and family on the surface, but it wasn't a good idea. You'd been gone for months; they'd probably already grieved for you and started to move on. A message from you would've only brought them more pain.

And besides, you weren't much of a suicide note kind of person, anyway.

Before you knew it, night had fallen. While Sans told Papyrus his bedtime story, you rolled onto your side, facing away from them so that they couldn't see the tears rolling down your cheeks. If you'd wanted to say any last words to Paps, now was the time. But, you couldn't think of anything before the heavy, rhythmic breathing coming from the bed next to you indicated that Papyrus had fallen asleep.

You watched the clock on the wall tick by, wondering if Sans was lying awake, too. He wasn't murmuring unintelligible sleep-talk, so you assumed he was. Both of you waited, together and yet unbearably alone, with only the little grumbling sounds of sleeping Amalgamates to fill the void of silence. All too soon, the minute hand ticked over to midnight.

You sat up in bed, and Sans reluctantly followed suit. You could barely make out his silhouette in the darkness, but you could tell he was looking at you from the pinpricks of light in his eyes.

"Y'know, it hasn't technically been a week. We could still wait another day." He was right; your agreement had been made last Friday night, and it was only the earliest hours of the next Friday morning. But you shook your head.

"No, I'd rather do it now." You whispered back, putting on your shoes before standing up, grabbing your cane from the foot of your bed. Yesterday, you'd worn the original clothes you'd fallen into the Underground with: a long sleeved t-shirt and jeans. You hadn't changed out of them when you went to bed; you weren't about to die in your pajamas, thank you very much.

Sans watched silently as you took the time to walk to the corner of the room where Endogeny was sleeping, giving the pup a rub on the head. One of its many legs twitched, but it didn't wake. It was probably for the best.

"Okay, let's go." You stood up straight and turned around, taking Sans' hand when he held it out for you. He led you down the dark, creepy hallway, toward the TV room. Somewhere along the way, you passed through a shortcut and found yourself in an eerily familiar place.

The judgement hall looked very different at night. Instead of being bathed in a vibrant, orange glow, everything looked blue. It was even more beautiful in person, with the pale, marble columns reaching up to an ornate ceiling. The two sets of footsteps made loud, echoing sounds as the two of you walked down the hall. You wanted to stop to admire the architecture, but Sans pulled you past it quickly, keeping a firm hold on your hand.

"Can't we do it there?" You asked, thinking it would be fitting to go out in the judgement hall. But Sans vetoed that with a shake of his head.

"I'd rather be as close to the barrier as possible." Personally, you thought you should've been allowed to pick the place, but you relented without argument. Sans seemed to have thought about this a lot already, and you didn't want to throw off whatever groove he was in. This wasn't easy for him, either, you reminded yourself.

The remaining corridors passed by in a blur. The closer you got to the barrier, the more your heart started to pound.

"You're gonna find my computer, right? And r-reset the game?" You asked as the two of you made your way through a field of Asgore's flowers, overgrown with weeds from lack of tending.

"Thought that was the plan, yeah." Sans didn't slow down, as much as you wanted to drag your feet.

"Just m-making sure. I left it in my room, but someone's probably moved it by now. It's small… and g-gray…" You trailed off lamely, and Sans didn't respond. You worried a little that Sans wouldn't be able to find your computer once he was on the surface. Or that he'd find it, but would have trouble working it. It was only as the two of you approached the final doorway that he replied,

"I'll figure it out, I promise." With that, Sans tugged your hand gently, leading you through the last archway.

As soon as you caught sight of the barrier, you had to fight away the overwhelming instinct to turn around and flee. You clutched your cane tightly, but its cool surface failed to anchor you like it usually did. The endless, gaping expanse of nothingness that was keeping everyone trapped here loomed in front of you, making your breaths come in ragged gasps. You were dangerously close to hyperventilating.

As soon as Sans let go of your hand, you plunged it into your pocket, holding on tightly to the Rubik's cube that you'd brought with you. You trembled as a deep, primal panic overcame you, but you held your ground even as you started to cry again.

"We can go back." Sans' deep voice rumbled in your ear, overpowering the white noise emitted by the barrier. His hand came up to stroke your arm. It helped.

"N-no." You dropped your cane, in favor of grabbing on to Sans' elbow. Your most valued possession clattered to the ground with a sense of finality. "H-how are you g-gonna d-do it?" Honestly, you'd been thinking so much about what you wanted to do before you died, that you hadn't thought at all about how you wanted the actual deed to go down. You hoped Sans had come more prepared than you.

"Shh… don't worry about that yet. Just breathe." You tried to match Sans' deep inhales and soft exhales, but it was impossible to calm your racing heart. You felt lightheaded. Your whole body was shaking. And, all the while, the barrier pulsed at your side, making your hair stand on end.

"S-s-sorry…" You managed to gasp out an apology, knowing that your blubbering was just making this more difficult for Sans.

"It's okay, don't be sorry." He murmured, rubbing soothing circles into your upper arm with his thumb. You recognized it as the same little pattern you'd rubbed into his back the other day.

Slowly, very slowly, you calmed down. Eventually, you felt okay enough to release your death-grip on the Rubik's cube and bring that hand up to grab Sans' shoulder, instead. You bowed your head, concentrating on controlling your shaky breathing. Gradually, the trembling in your body localized to just your hands, and your heart rate began to slow. You were so concentrated on not having a meltdown that you even forgot why you'd been panicking, to begin with.

That was, until something sharp slashed deep into your upper thigh.

"Oh," was all you could say. _Femoral artery,_ your ever-helpful mind supplied. You supposed it made sense; draining the blood from someone's leg was as quick, if not quicker, than cutting their throat, and certainly less traumatizing to watch. Even as you thought about it, dark red blood washed down your leg, quickly staining your jeans and pooling at your feet. The way it gushed out in spurts would've sickened you if you weren't so lightheaded already.

Suddenly, your heart rate skyrocketed. You wheezed as you felt an immense pain in your chest, far worse than the sharp stinging coming from your leg. You dropped like a stone, barely aware that Sans was lowering you to the ground gently. You pawed weakly at his jacket, feeling the anxiety from earlier rushing back with a vengeance.

"S-Saaans…" As he pet your hair with one hand, he carefully set down the sharp, knife-like bone he'd been holding in the other. "I-I… don't…" He shushed you, and you rapidly felt yourself growing too weak to even support your own head. God, it was so quick! "M'sorry…"

"I forgive you." He whispered into your ear, cradling your head in his lap. You sighed happily and let yourself go limp. Vaguely, you felt something tugging at your chest as you heard three clicks. The last thing you saw before closing your eyes was a lilac heart, sluggishly floating from your chest to Sans'...

And then, everything went dark.

You felt nothing.

You were adrift, lost.

But there was something… the wind? Howling?

Something buzzed in your ear.

Your… ear?

Did you have ears?

There was something heavy in your arms. Limp, lifeless. It scared you, and you wanted to drop it, but you couldn't.

You stirred, curious, and unsure. Something much stronger than you pressed you back down, smothering you. Choking you.

Well, that just wouldn't do.

You pressed back against it, finding that you grew stronger with each passing moment. Eventually, it gave, and you were suddenly flooded with an onslaught of sensory information. You shrank back, and would've cried out if you'd been in control of your own voice. But, now that you'd awakened, you could no longer go back to unconsciousness.

There were a lot of things that had happened right then that you wouldn't be able to remember later, but you did distinctly recall the very first thing you saw when you'd regained awareness.

The Orion constellation, shining like a bright beacon in the night sky.


	23. Til Death Do We Part (Epilog)

There was a sharp _sniiiiiip!_ as you tore open the plastic bag, cutting it cleanly with a single, long talon. You shuffled forward, tipping the bag and letting the fresh ice spill into the trough. You smoothed your left hand, the one without the talons, over the surface of the ice, distributing it equally over the length of the trough. In order to check the bottom of the wooden container, you were forced to get on your hands and knees. Seeing that a steady trickle of pale, pink water was dribbling out of the hole in the bottom, you frowned. Or, at least, you frowned as best you could, since half of your face was frozen in a permanent grin.

"S'hot today." You grunted, your voice raspy and harsh, as usual. "Gonna need more ice." You felt a foreign presence in your mind grow impatient with you as you got off of your knees, using the edge of the trough to help you stand up on your lanky legs.

 _We can do that tomorrow._ The irritated voice inside your head replied, _We agreed!_ You twitched, and a single feather fell to the ground.

"Yeah." You conceded to the voice, your bones rattling anxiously, "Jus' worried about you, s'all."

 _Well, don't be._ The voice snipped, _Give me control._ You bristled, your teeth grinding together.

"One minute!" Your words came out louder than you'd intended, and scared away a few birds on the rafters. You cringed and looked up, watching the creatures fly away through a hole in the rusted, metal roof of the old barn. "Sorry." Your muttered apology went unanswered.

Well, of course it did. They were just birds.

At the voice's insistence, you hurried to get done what you needed to do. You awkwardly climbed the ladder to the loft, where a whole plethora of dusty artifacts sat in careless piles. Most of them you recognized as some sort of farming equipment, made useless by years of sitting around, decaying. A few of the items were yours, including a blue jacket with a big rip in the back, a Rubik's cube, and a cane that was propped up in the corner. Others, though, you had no idea why they were there. Like the big, cracked mirror that leaned against the back wall of the barn. Usually, it was kept covered by a sheet. But, seized by a sudden curiosity, you lifted the veil and peered at your reflection cautiously.

The thing that looked back at you was… well, the words "horrific eldritch monstrosity" came to mind. Your body was made entirely of bones; or, at least, almost entirely. Strips of muscle and strings of sinew clung sparsely to a few areas. Your shoulders and thighs, in particular, had some bulk to them. Beads of blood glistened on the exposed flesh, making the muscles shine. Occasionally, a drop of blood would break free from the muscle and run down your leg, or arm, or wing.

Oh, yeah, you had wings.

You tried not to think about them much. They were, by far, the strangest part of your physicality. And that included the one hand that had sharp, bird-like talons in place of fingers. Feeling brave, you stretched one of the wings up, fanning out the few, lone feathers at the tip. The wings, like the rest of your body, were nothing but bone, with a few stray primaries clinging to life. The feathers tended to fall out a lot, but, somehow, they always seemed to replace themselves when you weren't watching, looking just as dead and lifeless as they had when they'd fallen out.

You lifted up your left hand, stroking the smooth bone of the wing up to the first joint, which was as far as you could reach. It felt weird, suddenly having body parts that you'd never had before. Yeah, it felt weird to have an entire body made of bones, too, but at least you had a reference point for all of your other appendages. Legs felt like legs, no matter what they were made of. But wings… felt like a second set of arms, only bigger and with all the wrong proportions.

 _Hurry up!_ You clicked your jaw, annoyed that you were being rushed. There was no hurry, really; you had all day. But, you knew this was a stressful moment for your other half, so you relented. You pulled the sheet completely off of the mirror, thinking it would work well for what you needed. You tied it around your waist, using it as a sash to cover everything from your pelvic bone, down. The wings made it difficult to wear any sort of top, and you were far too tall for any pair of human pants to fit you. But you'd be damned if you were going to face this all-too-important day in the nude.

 _Alright, we're decent. Now can we please go?_

"Alrigh', but ya got a plan? Don' wanna have to _wing_ it." You chortled at your own pun, and even the voice, as tense as he was, seemed amused.

 _That was pretty good,_ He admitted, _But really, now. Can you let me go so we can_ fly _on out of here?_ Snorting with mirth, you nodded, and worked on releasing control over your body. It was difficult to do, and had taken weeks to perfect, but you were fairly practiced now at crawling back to the corner of your mind and letting someone else take the wheel. It was hard not to jerk back control when your feet started moving without your consent, but you managed to settle back and just relax.

Now with free reign of his own, mutated body, Sans took you both back downstairs. He threw a last look over his shoulder at the trough before pulling open the sliding barn door. The old thing made quite a ruckus every time it was opened and closed, but you had to keep it shut for fear of animals sneaking in and eating things they shouldn't. _That_ had the potential to be one horrifying, disgusting mess, and you never wanted to see that, ever.

You observed silently as he walked a little ways away from the barn, the hot, summer sun beating on your back. Both you and Sans tended to hunch over in this body, but Sans definitely had worse posture than you. It was easier to bend over slightly for two reasons; one, because if you didn't, the tips of your wings scraped on the ground uncomfortably, and two, because it aligned your center of balance in a way that felt more natural. But you suspected that Sans' hunching had something to do with self-confidence, as well.

"What're you talkin' about? I'm plenty confident." He complained, and you scoffed without comment. Another difference between the two of you was that he was much more articulate. He'd gotten used to his face being half-frozen pretty quickly, whereas you couldn't quite get the hang of speaking around it. You still stumbled over pronunciation and often slurred your words, which was frustrating.

As you lamented your inability to enunciate, Sans probed the area for shortcuts. That was another thing that you hadn't quite figured out yet. It fascinated you, how he could search out these little folds in space-time and use them as a means of travel. There were so, so many of them, but the one he was looking for in particular led to a spot a bit farther up the mountain. Right next to where the barrier used to stand, in fact.

That first month after crossing the barrier had been… well, "hard" didn't exactly do it justice. But what it had boiled down to was this: You and Sans (mostly Sans, since, at that point, you had a tough time controlling the new body yourself) had found your computer, reset the game, and waited…

And waited….

For weeks.

When it became clear that nothing was going to happen without your intervention, you started up the game again. You and Sans had argued about it endlessly, but, when it came down to it, you'd gotten your way. You played the game for one last time, carefully avoiding hurting anyone so as to get the desired ending. Playing the game was a challenge in itself; dodging enemy attacks was no easy feat when the fingers of your right hand were giant claws. Every time you died, you'd felt immensely guilty for hurting Frisk.

But that had been a small problem, comparatively. What had really worried you was the content of the game itself. Specifically, how it had been completely lacking in a certain punny skeleton. You supposed it made sense; after all, Sans had been right there, with you, not in the Underground. But the way none of the characters ever so much as acknowledged Sans' existence had you feeling that something was wrong.

"Stop it." Sans growled, and you jolted back to the present. It was easy to get lost in your own thoughts when you weren't controlling the body. "Stop thinking about that."

 _Sans…_

"He'll remember me. He's got to." Sans gritted his teeth, "I'm his brother, we've spent our entire lives together. He wouldn't even be alive if it weren't for me. So I know he'll remember me, because it wouldn't make sense otherwise." You stayed silent, trying hard not to express your doubt. Problem was, it was near impossible to hide emotions from someone you were sharing a mind and body with.

"You'll see. We're almost there." Indeed, you were. A short distance away from the exit to the Underground, there was a rudimentary settlement. You'd kept up with the news by snagging papers from garbage cans, so you knew that the monsters were being quarantined in a small, government-controlled zone in the wilderness. Even though it'd been about a month since the barrier had been destroyed, not many monsters had even gotten to _see_ the surface yet, let alone live on it. Recently, the state had built a row of houses in a clearing, so a few monsters could start to live up there. The papers had made it out to be a very generous gift from humans to monsters, however, once you got close enough to see the accommodations for yourself, you found that was far from the case.

Even you, someone who knew nothing about construction, saw immediately that the houses were shitty. The foundation was bad, and a few of the homes on the end had already begun to sag. They'd obviously been built hastily, since they were small and all looked exactly the same. There were twelve houses in total, but only a fraction of those showed any signs of life. Even the monsters, who'd been deprived of sunlight for thousands of years, didn't want to live in these conditions.

Still, though, there was one house that was bustling with activity. It was the fourth house from the left, and it was the only one with its lights on. Every now and then, a figure would pass by the window. You knew, without needing to investigate any further, that you would find your friends in there.

You might have accidentally taken back control, had Sans not been even more eager to see them than you were. Sans pressed forward, tripping over his own gangly body twice along the way. _We're going to look crazy._ You pointed out, but he didn't care in the least. He banged on the door, knocking out a rapid, staccato beat.

Suddenly, the door flew open. Standing on the threshold was the only face Sans had cared to see.

"Papyrus!" He gasped, studying his brother's face in the same way a starved man might've looked at a sirloin steak. Papyrus, for his part, was initially startled. You didn't blame him; you were quite the sight. Even hunched over, you easily towered over him. But, he quickly recovered, giving you a brilliant smile.

"HELLO! I see you already know me! This is not surprising, since I am very famous! Nyeh heh heh!" Sans lunged forward, quick as lightning, and grabbed both of Papyrus' arms. The other skeleton jumped, but didn't pull away.

"Paps, listen… it's me, Sans! Your brother!" Papyrus looked a little nervous now, judging by the beads of sweat that had formed on his brow. He winced a little as sharp talons dug into his arm. You tried to warn Sans that he was hurting Paps, but he smothered your voice with a ferocity that frightened even you. You knew, by the look on Papyrus' face, exactly what was coming, but you were helpless to soften the blow. You were forced to just watch as Papyrus looked up at Sans, giving the two of you a slightly scared, but still sympathetic smile.

"Ah, heh, you must be confused! For, you see, I, The Great Papyrus, do not have any brothers!"

(A/N: Thanks for reading! Please consider leaving a review, it would be much appreciated!

There is a sequel in the works called "Count Your Blessings", but I will not be posting it here until it's finished. If you want to read it as I write it, you can find it on AO3 by following this link (remove the question mark first!): archiveofourown.o?rg/works/6078570/chapters/13932540 )


End file.
